Mill loan: Cong, NCP defend Patil against ‘smear campaign’

UPA presidential candidate Pratibha Patil today filed her nomination papers in the presence of top leaders of the ruling combine...

UPA presidential candidate Pratibha Patil today filed her nomination papers in the presence of top leaders of the ruling combine and the Left, including Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Speaking on the occasion, Parliamentary Affairs Minister and official representative of the UPA’s nominee Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said, “If Sunita Williams can go out in the space and come back, our candidate Pratibha Patil will also do it (win the presidential election).”

This show of confidence, however, failed to hide the jitters in the UPA camp caused by allegations against Patil’s brother in a murder case and also by reports that a sugar mill she had founded in Jalgaon had been issued notice for defaulting on loan repayment. Betraying the anxiety, Agriculture Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar showed up at the press briefing to rebut the allegations. Pawar had called up Dasmunsi around midnight to volunteer his support.

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Refuting the allegation that Patil had defaulted payment of a huge bank loan for a sugar cooperative, Pawar said no inquiry was ordered against her under the Maharastra Cooperative Societies Act. As many as 74 mills were issued notices in December 2006 and it was “unfortunate that only one particular case has been brought up in the media”. Most of the mills had failed to repay the loans because of persistent drought affecting sugarcane production, leading these mills to go sick.

“Patil was the founder member and Chairperson of the mill till she became Rajasthan Governor three years ago. Now she is no longer associated with Shri Sant Muktabai sugar mill. When the notice was given, she was not an office-bearer in the mill,” the NCP chief said.

Worried UPA campaign managers on Friday evening even got Patil’s family members in Jalgaon to send her School Leaving Certificate to Delhi overnight just in case somebody disputed that she was over 35 years, the minimum age to be the President.

A visibly upset Dasmunsi hit out at the NDA for trying to malign Patil’s image. In the process, he drew a parallel between Patil’s case and “many political leaders” whose brothers, sisters and relatives were loan defaulters and also “electronic media industry”, which has been slapped with plenty of notices.

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Denying the allegations relating to the Jalgaon murder case, he said, “A malign campaign has been launched by an ex-PMO official, who is close to a former PM, against Patil and this was a sign of frustration and desperation which reflected that they were losing the presidential election.” He cited Akali Dal MP Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa’s statement that he was not aware of the press conference at his residence in which a widow from Jalgaon had alleged that Patil’s brother was involved in the murder of her husband and that Pratibha Patil was shielding him.