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Shekhawat to file papers tomorrow

Special Correspondent

BJP demands personal reply from Pratibha on allegations

He will file two sets of papers
“Don’t pre-determine poll outcome by numbers”

NEW DELHI: Even as the National Democratic Alliance announced on Saturday that Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat would file his nomination papers for the Presidential election on Monday, the Bharatiya Janata Party asked the United Progressive Alliance candidate Pratibha Patil to personally respond to allegations of her alleged role in a murder case and in the non-return of a loan for a cooperative sugar mill taken when she was its chairperson.

NDA spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said Mr. Shekhawat would file two sets of nomination papers. The NDA leaders met here and decided that June 25 was an important and significant date as it was on this day that the Emergency was imposed in 1975. “After that there was a big change in the politics of this country. Non-Congress parties got together and for the first time since Independence the Congress was unseated from power,” Ms. Swaraj said.

She said that in its three years’ rule so far the Congress-led ruling alliance at the Centre had shown “those tendencies”: “Then democratic institutions were made defunct and Constitutional offices were devalued. Today, too, every political party has charged that the Prime Minister’s post has become powerless and now an attempt is being made to install in the President’s chair someone who is loyal to one family. Our election issue would be to oppose such an attitude.”

Asserting that the upcoming Presidential poll was “no ordinary election but linked to the nation’s destiny”, Ms. Swaraj stressed that its outcome should not be pre-determined by today’s numbers. “In the end, victory will be Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s.”

UNPA stand

To questions from newspersons about the support of the Shiv Sena and the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA), Ms. Swaraj said the former had not taken a decision. They were in a dilemma, although the NDA had urged them to rise above regional lines.

As for the UNPA, which had announced on Friday that it would refrain from supporting the UPA or NDA candidates, Ms. Swaraj said nothing had been communicated to them formally. “The UNPA leaders had announced that they would like to see the Congress candidate defeated. We do hope that they realise that with the votes that they command, if they abstain they would not be able to achieve that. We do hope that they change their mind.”

Asked why the BJP was seeking a response from Ms. Patil when she had asserted that no personal allegations would be made, Ms. Swaraj said the BJP had not made any allegations but it was well within its right to seek a reply. “I still maintain that ours is a political and ideological battle.”

Shift in strategy

However, in what appears to be a clear shift in strategy, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad at a separate press conference demanded a response from Ms. Patil and not the Congress spokesperson. “The smear campaign charge of the Congress against the BJP is baseless. The lady in question (Rajni Patil) did not get justice in the matter of the alleged murder of her husband. She has alleged that Ms. Pratibha Patil had a role in it. She even met Congress president Sonia Gandhi twice in the matter but got no justice.”

“Our allegation,” he said, “is that family loyalty was not the only consideration in the selection of Ms. Pratibha Patil for the high post of the President. The vulnerability of the candidate was also a consideration.”

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