By IANS
New Delhi : The field was formally set Monday for a straight contest for India's presidential elections, with the authorities rejecting all applications except those of Pratibha Patil and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the nominees of the country's two main coalitions.
But even as Lok Sabha Secretary General P.D.T. Achary threw out 72 "non serious" nominations, there was some embarrassment for United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate Patil as the Supreme Court said it would hear Tuesday a public interest litigation (PIL) challenging her candidacy on grounds that she was in debt to the public exchequer and others.
Simultaneously, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) launched a fresh offensive against Patil by asking her and Shekhawat to declare their assets and state if they faced any criminal cases against them.
BJP sources admitted that it was a last ditch attempt to embarrass Patil, who would be India's first woman president if she wins the July 19 elections, because of the controversy surrounding the collapse of a cooperative bank her family floated in Maharashtra long ago.
With the rejection of all other nomination, it will now be a direct battle between Patil, fielded by the UPA, Left and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), and Shekhawat, an independent backed by the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA).
Four sets of nomination papers submitted by Patil and two filed by the Shekhawat were the only ones found valid after scrutiny, said Achary, returning officer for the presidential polls.
"All other nomination papers were found invalid," Achary told reporters. He said none of the other nominations met the requirements needed to contest the country's highest constitutional post.
None could attach the signatures of at least 50 proposers and as many seconders, mandatory for filing their papers. Some did not even deposit the required Rs.15,000.
Although Patil's victory appears a foregone conclusion as the UPA and its allies command most of the 1.09 million strong electoral college, the NDA's charges against her have evoked an extraordinary interest in the presidential poll.
The opposition had charged that a sugar cooperative founded by her in Maharashtra had defaulted in repaying a huge government loan. Patil, a veteran Congress politician and until recently the Rajasthan governor, has also been accused of shielding her brother in a 2005 murder case.
Stepping up the offensive against Patil, a BJP delegation asked the Election Commission to make it mandatory for presidential candidates to declare their assets while filing nomination papers.
The delegation, which handed over a detailed letter on the issue written by opposition leader L.K. Advani, demanded that Patil should make public her financial assets before her nomination papers are accepted.
Under the Representation of People's Act, the submission of income/assets details is obligatory only for representative elected directly, like Lok Sabha MPs or MLAs. It therefore leaves out those elected indirectly like Rajya Sabha MPs, members of various legislative councils or the president and vice president.
Meanwhile, in the Supreme Court, a vacation bench of Justice Tarun Chatterjee and Justice P.K. Balasubramanyan decided to hear the petition seeking cancellation of Patil's nomination paper for the presidential poll for being an "undischarged insolvent" – a person in debt to public exchequer and others.
Patil, who had begun her nationwide tour Sunday in support of her candidature, has described the charges against her as "malicious and baseless."