New Delhi, Jul 5: Congress today dismissed as “childish tricks” BJP's plans to file an election petition against the nomination of UPA's Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee.
“President election is not like student body polls of colleges and universities that you try to prove yourself a powerful candidate by using childish tricks,” party spokesperson Manish Tewari told reporters at the AICC briefing.
He was responding to questions on BJP threatening to file an election petition against Mukherjee's nomination and holding that his resignation from the Indian Statistical Institute was through a “forged” signature. Tewari said the party will decide on how to respond when any such step is taken by the BJP.
He also recalled his statement yesterday on the issue to reject the contentions.
Tewari had yesterday said,”When you realise that winning the election is absolutely impossible, then you deploy such tricks. The Opposition nominee (P A Sangma) and the parties supporting his candidature should seriously ponder.
“This is not an election for student bodies in schools and colleges but Presidential poll and should be fought with the dignity attached with it,” he had said. Mukherjee today refused to comment on the BJP's plan to file an election petition against his nomination.
“I would not like to comment on this issue. What they do is up to them,” he said at a press conference in Jaipur. Rival candidate P A Sangma, who is supported by BJP, BJD and AIADMK, had sought cancellation of Mukherjee's nomination under the Office of Profit rules on the ground that he was chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), a charge rejected by the UPA candidate.
The returning officer for the Presidential poll turned down the objection and cleared Mukherjee's candidature, a fact cited by the AICC as “end of the issue” yesterday.
