Taking the first formal step in the direction of becoming the first woman President of India, the UPA-Left candidate Pratibha Patil filed her nomination papers for the Presidential election.
Along with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, she submitted the documents to the returning officer and Lok Sabha Secretary-General P.D.T. Achary at the Lok Sabha Secretariat.
United Progressive Alliance (UPA) leaders Lalu Prasad, Ramvilas Paswan, Sharad Pawar, Ramdas Athawale and T R Balu were also there. Sitaram Yechury, Gurudas Dasgupta and Abani Roy were also present during nomination filing.
A host of Union Ministers such as Arjun Singh, Pranab Mukherjee, Shivraj Patil, Sushilkumar Shinde, A K Antony and Prithviraj Chavan, Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and his Delhi counterpart Sheila Dikshit were also present in the room. Patil's husband Devi Singh Shekhawat accompanied to Parliament House.
Prior, Patil with her family members traveled to Rajghat, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi to pay tributes to the Father of the Nation.