Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushama Swaraj today launched a fresh attack on UPA’s presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee and alleged Mukherjee’s signature on the letter resigning from Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Kolkata, was not genuine.
Swaraj, who was at Kangra in Himachal Pradesh to inaugurate the three-day meeting of the national executive of hartiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), said "it was painful that Pranab Mukherjee who forgot to resign from the post of ISI chairman, an office of profit, and when BJP raised doubts, he submitted his resignation that had forged signatures on it".
Claiming that Mukherjee had not quit the post of ISI chairman before filing his nomination for presidential polls, the BJP leader said his papers should have been rejected by the returning officer since the post was an "office of profit", which was a disqualification if the candidate held the post at the time of filing nominations.
Terming Mukherjee's resignation as "fake", Swaraj alleged that in a bid to save the UPA nominee's papers, a letter of resignation was "prepared hurriedly and forged signature put on it".
Swaraj claimed the difference in signatures of Pranab Mukherjee in his nomination papers and the resignation letter was "clearly discernible" and "even a small kid can spot the difference between Mukherjee's signature on his nomination papers and the resignation letter submitted to the Returning Officer".
Swaraj said what substantiated their charges against Mukherjee was the date on the resignation letter and questioned how was it possible that a letter sent to the ISI on June 20 reached Kolkata the very same day, accepted and reached back Delhi.
"The resignation letter has no official seal of the ISI on it and instead it was written on the letterhead of the Finance Minister", said Swaraj, adding neither the Finance Minister nor the ISI had made any official entry of the letter in its records.
Asked if BJP would submit a complaint to Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) against the order of the Returning Officer rejecting Sangma's objections and demand to disqualify Mukherjee, Swaraj said it was for Sangma to decide.