Miffed Urmila meets Congress leaders

AHMEDABAD: Senior Congress leader from Gujarat, Urmilaben Patel, is learnt to have met several senior Congress leaders in Delhi on Tuesday to protest against being deprived of the position of Himachal Pradesh governor.
The wife of former chief minister, late Chimanbhai Patel and mother of the state party president Siddharth Patel, she is known to have identified some detractors in the party who scuttled her chances.
When contacted by TOI on Tuesday, Urmilaben refused to attack anyone on the subject and said, "What is done is done, I don't want to make a big issue out of this."
But while her public stance was mellowed, party insiders said she had vented her anguish before senior Congress leaders. Urmilaben had actively canvassed for getting a gubernatorial position and during the recent Parliament session she was often seen in the Central Hall getting signatures from party MPs on a memorandum seeking political rewards for her "distinguished services to the party".
On Saturday, hours before the notification by Rashtrapati Bhavan on the appointments of governors, Urmilaben was accepting congratulations from various quarters on her likely appointment. Even some news agencies had put out her name in a list of governors which was likely to be announced that evening. However, when the announcement came, it was a big shock it was Urmila Singh, a Congress leader from Madhya Pradesh, who was made the Himachal Pradesh governor.