By IANS
Bhopal/Raipur : Pratibha Patil, the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) presidential nominee, Wednesday asked Congress legislators in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh to vote for her in the July 19 election, saying it would be a "victory of crores of people and not mine if I am elected".
Patil said she had faced several challenges in her 40 years of political life and was well aware of the responsibility thrust on her by the UPA.
She expressed gratitude to the UPA and its chairperson Sonia Gandhi for nominating her as the presidential candidate, party sources said.
The UPA nominee arrived in Bhopal in the afternoon to a rousing welcome at the Raja Bhoj airport and was welcomed by a host of Congress leaders, many of whom had arrived from Delhi.
A total of 38 Congress MLAs and some independent MLAs attended the meeting.
Prominent Congress leaders who attended the meeting were union ministers Arjun Singh and Suresh Pachauri, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Digvijay Singh, state Congress in-charge Narayan Sami, Congress MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, Satyavrat Chaturvedi, state Congress president Subhash Yadav and state Congress spokesman Brijmohan Shrivastava.
Patil later went to Chhattisgarh in the evening where she held meetings with Congress legislators and party parliamentarians.
"She held a meeting with Congress legislators besides an MLA each from the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) at a hotel here," Ramesh Varlyani, spokesperson of Chhattisgarh unit of the Congress, told reporters in Raipur.
Patil, who was accompanied by senior party leaders including AICC treasurer Motilal Vora and state Congress president Charandas Mahant, also held discussions with legislators and Congress MPs.
In the 90-member Chhattisgarh assembly, the Congress has 33 members and 31 party legislators are said to be loyal to former chief minister Ajit Jogi.
The Congress has two Lok Sabha MPs from Chhattisgarh's total 11 members.