The Opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) and the Biju Janata Dal have approached the Election Commission with “documentary evidences” against the UPA’s Presidential candidate, Mr Pranab Mukherjee. A delegation of NDA and BJD met the Chief Election Commissioner here on Monday and demanded re-scrutiny of Mr Mukherjee’s nomination papers. They argued that Mr Mukherjee was holding three offices of profit while filing the nomination. Talking to reporters after the meeting, the NDA leader, Mr Subramanian Swamy said Mr Mukherjee should be disqualified from contesting the election. The NDA leaders said Mr Mukherjee’s papers were accepted by the returning officer, Mr V.K. Agnihotri, in an illegal manner. The Opposition candidate, Mr P.A. Sangma’s advocate, Mr Satpal Jain, said the returning officer did not deal with many objections raised by them on Mr Mukherjee’s nomination, particularly his resignation letter from the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. Mr Jain said the returning officer did not decide on the genuineness and validity of the resignation letter. The Congress, however, denied the allegations. It said the BJP was trying to malign the process of elections to the top post. “They took the Presidential election campaign in 2007 to a new low. They are trying to repeat it in 2012. They will not be successful this time as well,” party spokesperson, Mr Manish Tewari said. Meanwhile, the Congress started consultations for the post of Vice-President. The Janata Dal (Secular) claimed that the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, had sought opinion from the party chief, Mr H.D. Deve Gowda, on a second term to Vice-President, Mr Hamid Ansari.
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