President unveils Kittur Rani Chennamma statue in Parliament House

New Delhi, Sep 11 (UNI) President Pratibha Devisingh Patil today unveiled the statue of Kittur Rani Chennamma, the warrior queen of Kitur, in Parliament.

Rani Chennamma, who was the Queen of the tiny principlity of Kittur in northern Karnataka, is considered the 'morning star' of India's freedom struggle and is in fact, an earlier version of Rani Laxmibai of Jhansi.

A contemporary of Shivaji Maharaj, Chennamma bravely fought to protect the tiny kingdom against the British rulers.

The Queen wished to adopt a son after she lost her husband but Lord Wellesley opposed it, ruling that only natural born children could be inheritors.

Vice President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman K Rehman Khan, Union Ministers M V Rajasekharan, Oscar Fernandes and K H Muniappa were among those who graced the occassion.

The 3000 kg bronze statue has been donated by the Kittur Rani Chennamma Memorial Committee and Department of Kannada and Culture. The statue portrays Chennamma riding on a horse and stands in a strategic location outside the Parliament House.

UNI