The Congress-led UPA on Wednesday made it clear that its Presidential candidate Pratibha Patil will not interact with the media in the run up to the July 19 election, even as she issued a signed statement denying all allegations against her as “motivated” and asked the Opposition BJP not to “demean” the dignity of the high office of President.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister P R Dasmunsi, who is the chief election manager of Ms Patil, said to queries from the media whether she would interact with the press before her election, “Never, ever has any candidate for Presidential election addressed the media. It is not like the election of the American President or the German Chancellor. It is a Constitutional post.”
The assertion came amidst reports that the Congress was wary of giving the media access to Ms Patil following her controversial comments on the “purdah” system and communicating with spirits as well as all the allegations hurled at her by the BJP.
When it was pointed out to him that immediately after A P J Abdul Kalam was made the candidate in 2002, he spoke to the media, Mr Dasmunsi evaded a direct reply, saying, “Mr Kalam had only said after his nomination that he would serve the nation.”
Representative
“Our party has nominated her representatives (who would convey to the media what she has to say),” he said.
Ms Patil’s statement, released by the AICC in both English and Hindi , meanwhile said that following scrutiny by the returning officer, she was now formally a candidate for the highest office of the nation.
“I shall seek the votes of the electoral college in a spirit of humility. Under no circumstances should the campaign, directly or indirectly, demean the dignity of the highest office,” she said, without mentioning any political party’s name.
‘Motivated’
“In my over five decades of public life, I have always endeavoured to be true to my conscience. All the allegations against me are motivated and have already been answered,” she said.
Mr Dasmunsi, replying to a question, denied that the statement had been issued following pressure from the Left, which was reportedly unhappy at the turn of events involving the allegations against Ms Patil.
“There is no pressure from any quarter to issue a statement, she is competent enough to issue any statement,” he said. He said that the UPA-Left candidate would “definitely” get at least 5.75 lakh first preference votes in the election, and that the figure would go up as he was trying to bring the votes of some smaller regional groupings to her side.