With Pratibha Patil having made a few controversial statements since her selection as UPA-Left’s presidential candidate including blaming the “purdah” system on the Mughals, the Congress is still undecided whether the media should be given direct access to her during her nationwide campaign tour starting on Monday.
Ms Patil, who is starting her campaign tour from Chennai, is also in news for stating that she had developed contact with the spirit of the late Dada Lekhraj, the founder of the Brahmakumari sect who passed away some three decades ago.
Highly-placed party sources said requests were pouring in for her interviews during her campaign tour to different parts of the country from all sections of media.
But, the sources said, given the controversy her comments on the “purdah” system and contact with spirits has created, the party high command was wary of letting the media interact her directly during the campaign tour. 
BJP allegations
Another factor that has put the party in a dilemma in this regard is the allegations levelled against her and her kin by the BJP-led NDA.
“If the media gets access to her, she will be definitely asked about all these issues, and though the Congress has rebutted all the allegations and the BJP has been talking without any documentary evidence to back up its allegations, still she might be put in an embarrassing situation,” the sources said.
Interestingly, Ms Patil has debunked all charges made against her in an interview given this week to a Hindi news magazine, though Opposition camps described it as a “public relation plug”.
Ms Patil’s chief election manager and Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi, while admitting that no decision had yet been taken on whether the media should be given access to her, said, “We can determine everything only after scrutiny of nomination papers is over on July 2.”
“What she tells during her interaction with members of the electoral college during her campaign will anyway be conveyed to the media,” he said.
The Congress leadership is thinking of using a private aircraft to ferry Ms Patil from one state to another so that no time is wasted and she is able to cover most of the states, he said.
2 MORE SETS OF NOMINATION PAPERS FILED
New Delhi, dhns: Cocking a snook at the BJP’s suggestion to the UPA-Left that it drop Pratibha Patil as its Presidential candidate following the controversies surrounding her and nominate someone else, the Congress on Saturday filed two more sets of nomination papers on behalf of her.
The move, taken just about half-an-hour before the process of filing nominations came to an end at 3 pm, was meant to show the UPA-Left’s confidence vis-à-vis Ms Patil, Parliamentary Affairs Minister and her chief election manager P R Dasmunsi said here.
“We need just over 5.49 lakh votes to get her elected, and going by conservative estimates, she is going to get over six lakh votes on the D-day,” he said.
The last day of the nomination process saw 31 people filing their papers at the office of the returning officer, Lok Sabha Secretary-General P D T Chary, taking the total number of nominations to 74.
However, most of these papers are expected to be rejected during scrutiny on July 2, as they are likely to be invalid because of either not having the requisite number of signatures from members of the electoral college as proposers and seconders or not being accompanied by the necessary payment of Rs 15,000.
Mr Dasmunsi, after filing the fresh two sets of nomination papers for Ms Patil, said that altogether around 267 proposers and around 275 seconders comprising the MPs from both  the Houses and the MLAs had taken part in the nomination process for her.
Barring Lakshwadweep, the MPs and the MLAs from all other states and the Union territories, representing the UPA, its outside supporters and the BSP, comprised the signatories, he said. “The participation the nomination process indicates that every part of India has supported her candidature as the first women President of the country. On the other hand, BJP’s ‘independent’ candidate B S Shekhawat has not been able to get so much support,” he said.
Mr Dasmunsi, meanwhile, also attacked BJP leader L K Advani for “demeaning” the office of the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha by sending a letter to the Prime Minister signed by one of his office staff, copies of which were released to the media on Friday.