New Delhi, Jul 4 (PTI): Opposition nominee PA Sangma's attempts to trip UPA candidate Pranab Mukherjee's Presidential bid failed on Tuesday with the Returning Officer rejecting his objections, leaving both the candidates in the fray for a direct contest in the July 19 poll.
"Only Pranab Mukherjee and Sangma are in the fray after their nomination papers were found valid in all respects. The final list of candidates will be made after the last day of withdrawal of nominations tomorrow," Rajya Sabha Secretary General VK Agnihotri, the Returning Officer, told reporters after completion of scrutiny of papers.
He declined to divulge the details or the reasoning behind the rejection of Sangma's objection to Mukherjee's candidature that the UPA nominee stood disqualified as he still held an office of profit, saying he has to get the clearance of the Election Commission.
However, Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal, who appeared as Mukherjee's representative along with Home Minister P Chidambaram before the returning officer, told reporters that Agnihotri accepted the argument that he had resigned from the post of Chairman of Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) on June 20, well before filing his nomination.
He said the returning officer allowed their contention that the resignation was forwarded to the president of the ISI and also accepted his nomination papers.
With this, Mukherjee and Sangma, whose nomination papers were found to be in order this morning, will fight it out in a direct contest in the poll. The counting of votes will be on July 22.
Agnihotri said he also rejected objections against the nomination papers of Sangma and Mukherjee filed by one Charanlal Sahu.
Sangma's lawyer Satpal Jain had yesterday demanded that Mukherjee's papers be cancelled at the scrutiny stage as he holds an office of profit.
Jain said that Mukherjee is chairperson of ISI and, hence, cannot contest the Presidential poll under the Office of Profit rules.
While Mukherjee was given time till today to reply to the complaint, the government had rejected Sangma's claim, saying he had resigned from the post of ISI Chairman on June 20.
Despite persistent questioning as to the reasons for accepting the papers of Mukherjee, Agnihotri maintained that he would give a detailed order only after getting clearance from the Election Commission.
"I have acted in my quasi-judicial authority. I cannot give all the reasons at this point of time. I have to ask the Election Commission what I can say. I will write to them today itself. We don't want to hide anything," he said when told that the BJP was not happy with his ruling.
However, in a press release Agnihotri said "after making summary enquiries , as required under the relevant provisions of the Presidential and Vice Presidential Elections Act, 1952 regarding conduct of scrutiny of the Nominations Papers and after hearing both the parties in the cases today, I, in my capacity as Returning Officer, overruled the objections raised in both cases today, as they were untenable and lacked merit under the provisions of the Act and in light of various judgements of the Supreme Court of India."
"The Nomination Papers filed by Shri Purno Agitok Sangma and Shri Pranab Mukherjee were accordingly taken up for scrutiny," he said.