Pratibha Patil resigns as Rajasthan Governor

NEW DELHI: Setting the stage for her filing of nomination as UPA-Left Presidential nominee, Pratibha Patil resigned as Rajasthan Governor on Thursday.

Accompanied by AICC Spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan, Patil called on President A P J Abdul Kalam at the Rashtrapati Bhavan and submitted her resignation letter.

Seventy-three-year old Patil has been Rajasthan Governor since 2004.

She will be formally introduced at a meeting of the AICC office bearers and Congress Chief Ministers at Congress President Sonia Gandhi's residence at 10 Janpath.

The meeting, scheduled to be held in the evening, will finalise a campaign strategy for Patel, who will be the first woman President if she wins the election.

Earlier, official sources had said that Patil will be sending her resignation to President A P J Abdul Kalam on Friday.

While the UPA-Left coalition has announced that Patil would be filing her nomination papers on June 23, she had made it clear that she would do so only after resigning from the Governorship.

The sources said that after resigning, Patil is likely to shift base to South Avenue area, housing the Members of Parliament, till the July 19 presidential poll.

The Congress as also the Left Parties have already rejected the efforts initiated by the Third Front leaders for a consensus on second term for Kalam and has maintained that Patil was their nominee.