IANS/New Delhi


Pranab Mukherjee tries his hand at spinning cotton on a symbolic ‘charkha’ or spinning wheel during a visit to the Gandhi Ashram in Ahmedabad yesterday
Presidential candidate P A Sangma will seek a review of the decision to accept the nomination of his rival and United Progressive Alliance nominee Pranab Mukherjee, a Bharatiya Janata Party leader said.
The main opposition party is backing Sangma.
After a two-hour-long at BJP leader Sushma Swaraj’s residence here, it was decided that they will go to the Election Commission tomorrow to demand a review of presidential poll returning officer V K Agnihotri’s approval of Mukherjee’s candidature.
The option for going to court has also been kept open.
“We will go the Election Commission and complain against the returning officer. The Election Commission, under Article 324, has the right to review the decision taken by the returning officer,” BJP leader S S Ahluwalia told reporters after the meeting.
“We hope that the Election Commission will take the right decision,” he said.
The meeting was attended by Swaraj, Ahluwalia, Ananth Kumar, Janata Party leader Subramanian Swamy and Satpal Jain.
Jain, who heads the BJP’s legal cell and is acting as Sangma’s lawyer, said the option for going to court was “kept open.”
He also said that a copy of the order given by the returning officer did not deal with all the issues raised by them.
“The order did not deal with the points raised by us and did not give a conclusive reason why our objections were rejected,” Jain said.
“In it, the returning officer also says ‘I am leavening certain issues to be decided at another forum’... What can be a better forum than the Election Commission,” Jain asked.
Sangma’s team on Monday demanded that Mukherjee’s nomination be rejected, alleging that the former finance minister was holding an office of profit as chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) when he filed his nomination on June 28.
Mukherjee, however, produced his resignation letter dated June 20 with acceptance from the ISI. Subsequently, Sangma’s request was rejected and Mukherjee’s nomination accepted by the returning officer.
The BJP alleged on Tuesday that the signatures of Mukherjee on two documents were different. Mukherjee refuted the charge.