New Delhi: The gloves are well and truly off in the battle for presidency. Little wonder then that there have been slanging matches with both the BJP and the Congress hitting out at each other's candidates.
The Congress has hit out at Shekhawat, saying he helped his son-in-law Narpat Singh to escape prosecution in a land deal, used his chief ministerial position to quash an arrest warrant for hoarding essential commodities and has accused of having written a letter for the release of a smuggler.
The party has also accused Shekhawat of making a recommendation to the effect that posting of Muslims in border areas could be a security threat. The Congress also claims that Shekhawat had been suspended from police in 1948 on charges of corruption.
The BJP is not sitting behind either. The party has accused UPA's presidential candidate Pratibha Patil of being a bank defaulter, of having swindled money collected for the Kargil fund and of helping her husband get away in a murder case.
This is just a taste of things to come in the biggest election before the Lok Sabha. This Presidential poll will be remembered for being sometimes subtle, at times vicious and one in which both parties are in a denial mode. Neither the BJP nor the Congress admit to being involved in these campaigns.
"I deny that the Congress party or any of the UPA constituent unit has anything to do with these types of allegations," Pranab Mukherjee, senior party leader and Union minister, claims.
BJP spokesperson Sushma Swaraj, too, says her party has nothing to do with all these allegations. "We haven't even taken notice of the allegations that are being piled against us. Neither have we alleged anything. So why must we worry?" she asks.
(With Bhupendra Chaubey)
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