The Hindu : National : We don’t know about Rajni Patil, says NDA

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Saturday, Jun 23, 2007
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We don’t know about Rajni Patil, says NDA

Neena Vyas

At a press meet at Akali leader’s house, she levelled allegations against Pratibha and her brother

NEW DELHI: Hours after serious allegations were made against the presidential candidate of the United Progressive Alliance, Pratibha Patil, at a press conference organised at the residence of Sukhbir Singh Dhindsa, leader of the NDA ally, the Akali Dal, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led NDA washed its hands of the whole affair.

NDA spokesperson and BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said: “No one in the NDA knows who this Rajni Patil is who is reported to have made some allegation against Ms. Pratibha Patil.

Mr. Dhindsa, at whose residence the press conference was organised, is in Shimla and I am told he was unaware that a press conference of this nature was being organised,” Ms. Swaraj said. She would not make any personal allegation against Ms. Patil. “Ours is a political and ideological battle, not a fight against any individual.”

The sequence of events was as follows: Mr. Dhindsa, who was in Shimla, received a request from Rajya Sabha MP Tarlochan Singh that he needed the use of his residence in Delhi for a couple of hours. Mr. Dhindsa, apparently, readily agreed.

At the press conference, Rajni Patil alleged that Ms. Pratibha Patil’s brother was in some way involved in the murder of her (Ms. Rajni Patil’s) husband several years ago. The suggestion was that Ms. Pratibha Patil had used her political influence to protect her brother. Copies of her memorandum to the President on this issue were distributed to the press by Mr. Sudheendra Kulkarni, an aide of Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani.

Mr. Kulkarni, who was an aide in the Prime Minister’s Office when Mr. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was Prime Minister before he was attached to Mr. Advani told The Hindu that his presence at the press conference could not be the issue . “My presence is not the issue, the issue is the allegation made by Ms. Rajni Patil ... all the papers are with me, you can take them from me.”

However, despite the clear connection between Mr. Kulkarni and the BJP, Ms. Swaraj emphatically denied any knowledge of the whole affair and totally distanced herself and the NDA from it.

Asked whether the NDA-backed candidate for the presidential poll Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat could have been behind the attempt to malign the rival candidate, Ms. Swaraj said: “Bhairon Singhji is a man of integrity. I have not asked him, but I can say with full authority that he would never stoop so low as to make these kind of personal allegations against a rival.”

“Baseless”

The Congress described the allegations as completely baseless. Minister for Information and Broadcasting Priyaranjan Dasmunsi said he would not like to say anything about such “low and mean tactics.”

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