The slanging match between the UPA-Left and the NDA over the allegations against the former’s presidential election candidate Pratibha Patil continued on Sunday with the CPM saying that the “unfounded” charges against the Congress nominee were a handiwork of RSS-BJP’s “slander machinery”.

The CPM comments came a day before NDA-backed independent candidate, Vice-President B S Shekhawat, is scheduled to file his nomination for the election.

CPM leader Sitaram Yechuri talking to reporters after a party politburo meeting prior to the start of a three-day meeting of its central committee, said, “It is only natural for RSS-BJP and their proactive slander machinery to spring into action on such occasions."

Mr Yechuri said the “unfounded allegations” against Ms Patil were a result of NDA’s desperation because it did not have the numbers to win the Presidential poll.

NCP leader Sharad Pawar, he pointed out, had said on Saturday that Ms Patil’s name did not figure anywhere in any murder case and she was also not head of a sugar mill that had defaulted on bank loans.

Meanwhile, backed by history that no incumbent Vice-President has ever lost a presidential poll, NDA-backed Shekhawat is all set to file his nomination papers on Monday in the backdrop of the stakes heavily against him.
While the United National Progr essive Alliance (UNPA) has ruled out supporting both him and Ms Patil, the wily Shekhawat is yet to be assured of all NDA votes, though his managers have been claiming that he would benefit from cross voting from the UPA side.

The Shiv Sena, whose chief Bal Thackeray has said his party would vote for “Marathi pride”, would unveil its cards also on Monday, making the picture clearer for Mr Shekhawat, even as his close personal friend and NCP chief Sharad Pawar has said that Ms Patil would win by a margin of a minimum of two lakh votes against her rival. 
Another NDA member which is yet to reveal its mind is Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress.