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Wednesday, Jul 04, 2007
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Court rejection embarrasses BJP

Neena Vyas

Advani, Fernandes and Sushma Swaraj had their way
Senior leaders in BJP against the present campaign

NEW DELHI: Several leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party said on Tuesday that they were not surprised at the dismissal by the Supreme Court of the petition against UPA Presidential candidate Pratibha Patil as the petitioner, Manohar Lal Sharma, had no documents to support his allegations.

Rajnath’s advice

Rifts appeared in the National Democratic Alliance on June 18 itself, the day the NDA officially announced it would support Bhairon Singh Shekhawat’s candidature. Even BJP president Rajnath Singh advised waiting for a few more days to enable BJP leaders to persuade the Shiv Sena chief, Bal Thackeray, to go along with the decision.

The Trinamool Congress representative at the meeting also wanted the decision put off for a few more days until the newly launched United National Progressive Alliance’s view became known. But Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani, NDA convener George Fernandes and others, including Sushma Swaraj, had their way and it was declared that the NDA would support Mr. Shekhawat.

Now, in the wake of the court’s decision, some senior BJP leaders feel that the Election Commission will also come down heavily on the party for petitioning it to go against the established rule and law on disclosures by candidates for Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections.

The memorandum was written by Mr. Advani and taken to the Commission by those close to him, including V.K. Malhotra and Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Counter-productive

Many senior BJP leaders who do not want to be quoted admit that this kind of campaign has become counter-productive.

BJP spokespersons Prakash Javadekar and V.K. Malhotra alleged that the Congress was behind Mr. Sharma’s petition as it wanted to take advantage of the court’s expected decision — as the petition did not substantiate the charges with documentary evidence.

However, some BJP leaders, who point to the “connection” between the petitioner and a BJP leader from Chandigarh, say that it was he who encouraged Mr. Sharma to file the petition and this damaged the party’s campaign for Mr. Shekhawat.

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