Even as the United Progress Alliance on Friday officially took indirect digs at President A P J Abdul Kalam saying the presidential election cannot be won through e-mail or SMS campaigns, unofficially senior Congress leaders trained their guns on him, accusing him of lowering the prestige of his office by indicating his willingness for a second term after the announcement of UPA’s candidate.

“Mr Kalam has definitely lowered not only his image in public eye but also the prestige of the office of the President itself by saying that he would be in the fray if there was certainty about his re-election. It was totally unwarranted after he knew pretty well that it was not possible,” a senior AICC leader said.

The Congress leaders were of the view that Kalam got misled by the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA). “He should have understood their level of politics,” one leader said.

UPA leaders like NCP’s Sharad Pawar and RJD’s Lalu Prasad on Thursday itself had said that the “match” was over for Kalam and that he should retire “gracefully”.

Adding to it, Information & Broadcasting Minister P R Dasmunsi, who is also the chief election agent of UPA candidate Pratibha Patil, said on Friday in an apparent reference to the numerous e-mail and SMS campaigns as well as SMS-based opinion polls on TV channels which have shown that people favoured a second term for Kalam.

“The President is not elected through SMS campaign.”

Dasmunsi said the requisite number of signatures of proposers and seconders on Pratibha Patil’s nomination papers had been collected, including those of UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and all UPA leaders, in preparation for her filing of nomination on Saturday. Patil’s resignation was accepted by the President on Friday.

Meanwhile, the AICC was the venue for a meeting of various PCC chiefs and CLP leaders with party general secretaries and state in-charges Friday evening, where various issues relating to the presidential election were discussed.

“The issues included all aspects relating to the election, starting from the need to educate the electoral college in all over the states about the fact that the votes are not put in the form of crosses, as done in other elections, but is by writing 1, 2, 3 as per preference,” a senior AICC leader associated with the management process said.

Of course, the leader did not forget to emphasise that no Congress voter would put anything their first preference votes.

The AICC, meanwhile, termed the allegations that Ms Patil’s brother was involved in a murder case as “absolutely scandalous” and “totally baseless”.

  “Since the Opposition has not been able to find a candidate to match the stature of Ms Patil, they are trying to malign her. The dignity of the presidential poll and the President’s post should be maintained,” AICC spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan said appealing to the media not to give importance to such allegations.