BJP's cyber-offensive leaves Cong speechless

,  to intensify its campaign against UPA nominee Pratibha Patil, leaving Congress poll managers exasperated.

Launching the website, senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley claimed that it provided "extensive information with proper references" about Patil. He said the party faced no moral dilemma about this move.

"There is no dilemma within the BJP about this responsible campaign. It is also morally correct and what is morally correct has to be also politically correct," Jaitley said.

However, while Patil is busy campaigning in various states, senior Congress leaders here confessed that even as the BJP was brazenly offensive against her and was targeting the office of the President, "we do not know how to counter them."

Condemning the BJP for its systematic campaign to denigrate the institution of President and democracy through such campaigns, Devender Dwivedi, AICC general secretary, said, "Cyberspace is even used by terrorists."

Dwivedi said that BJP's campaign against Patil was just a spate of allegations based on half-truths and the Congress would not react to it and reduce the campaign for Presidency to a "prosecutorial exercise."

He claimed contrary to the BJP's campaign that negative public opinion about Patil's credentials would haunt the next President and also the Congress party, "people tell us that the BJP is doing all this to malign a woman candidate.''

Dwivedi, however, paid a left-handed compliment to the campaign managers of the BJP by saying that "though the BJP's group (engaged in anti-Patil campaign) is a bunch of senile and juvenile people, they are a well organised machinery with clear division of labour."

BJP leaders also released a booklet which has articles against Patil. Jaitely said the website was aimed at launching a "campaign to provide an informed choice to the electorate (the electoral college)."

The website, www.knowpratibhapatil.com, exhorts netizens to say no to Pratibha Patil's candidature.