Bhubaneswar: UPA’s presidential applicant Pratibha Patil will visit Bhubaneswar on July 11 to campaign.

AICC general secretary V Narayanswamy said Ms. Patil will arrive in the evening and talk with Congress MLAs and MPs and other backing parties at a meeting being planned for the purpose.

“She is coming to seek support in her favour ahead of the presidential poll and all the MLAs and MPs of Congress and other supporting parties will be requested to attend the meeting and also make themselves available in Bhubaneswar from July 17,” he added.

Narayanswamy told 38 Congress members, 4 JMM memeber, two of OGP, one each of CPI, CPI(M) and SUCI are among those who would sustain Ms. Patil’s contention.

A management group, headed by opposition leader J B Patnaik, has been established in this connection. The first meeting of the committee held its first meeting here yesterday, he said.

“We are finding there is overwhelming support in Patil's favour and as the trend goes, she is expected to win by a margin of two lakh votes,” Narayanswamy said.

Regretting that BJP and RSS had launched a ‘mudslinging campaign’ against Patil, he said the UPA wouldn’t do such thing against the NDA-supported independent contender Bhairon Singh Sekhawat.

The AICC official spokesman has already answered to replied to all charges leveled against Patil.