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It's a fight: Lakshmi Sahgal

By Our Special Correspondent

The Left parties' Presidential candidate, Lakshmi Sahgal, on her way to file her nomination at Parliament House in New Delhi on Friday. — Photo: Anu Pushkarna

NEW DELHI JUNE 21. The Left parties' Presidential candidate, Lakshmi Sahgal, today filed her nomination papers for the July 15 election and became the first woman to contest for the top post. Freedom fighter and lieutenant of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Capt. Sahgal, 87, filed her papers with the Returning Officer, Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha, S.C. Tripathi, this morning as the candidate against Abdul Kalam, the NDA nominee being backed by a majority of the Opposition parties.

``I take the contest as a fight,'' Capt. Sahgal told correspondents in the Parliament House complex soon after completing the formalities. Her main election plank would be the importance of the high office as a protector of the Constitution.

Accompanied by the former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, Left Parliamentary parties leaders, and her daughter and former CPI(M) MP, Subhashini Ali, she declared that she took it as an honour being nominated by the Left parties.

Two sets of nomination papers were filed, with one set being proposed by the CPI(M) Parliamentary party leader, Somnath Chatterjee, and other Left leaders. The second set was filed with the list of proposers being headed by the West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and his Cabinet colleagues, MLAs and MPs from the State. MLAs from Kerala headed by the Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, V.S. Achuthanandan (CPI-M), Binoy Vishwam (CPI), C.K. Nanu (JD-S) and others were also among the proposers-seconders.

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