Sangma camp’s fresh charge: Pranab holds 2 offices of profit

On Saturday,a three-member delegation comprising Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy,BJD leader B Mahtab and BJP’s Satya Pal Jain met Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath and Election Commissioner H S Brahma,seeking their intervention in the election.

They expressed dissatisfaction over the Returning Officer rejecting their objections against Mukherjee’s candidature. During the meeting,Swamy made alleged that Mukherjee held two more offices of profit as vice-president of Birbhum Institute of Engineering and Technology and chairman of Rabindra Bharati Society,which runs the Rabindra Bharati University.

“Here the issue is of fraud. Let the EC decide on whether there is a fraud in the nomination process. Let the EC take the final decision,” Swamy said after petitioning the Election Commission.

However,officials of Rabindra Bharati Society and the Engineering Society in Kolkata were quoted by PTI as saying Mukherjee had resigned much before filing his nominations.

Rabindra Bharati Society’s secretary Nabakumar Sil said Mukherjee resigned as the Society’s chairman on June 20,much before filing his nomination. “Pranab Mukherjee resigned on June 20 and we accepted it immediately,” he said adding the post of chairman was an honorary one. He also said Mukherjee was not paid any honorarium.

Ramchandra Dome,secretary of the Birbhum Institute of Engineering,said Mukherjee had resigned from the post in 2004.

At the meeting with the EC officials,Jain contested the Returning Officer’s ruling rejecting their objections against Mukherjee for allegedly holding an office of profit at ISI,Kolkata. He sought the poll panel’s intervention in the election process under Article 324 of the Constitution.

The Election Commission,in return,asked Sangma camp’s delegation to present their written submission to the Commission by Monday evening.

During the meeting,the delegation also raised the issue of alleged mismatch of Mukherjee’s signatures in his written reply to the Returning Officer after Sangma’s had raised objections to his candidature on the day of scrutiny on July 2. The delegation contended that the Returning Officer did not address many of the substantive issues raised by them during the hearing on their objections raised on the day of the scrutiny of the nomination.