BJP is divided over its campaign against Pratibha Patil, with party chief Rajnath Singh apparently having reservations over the unabated attack on the UPA-Left presidential candidate.
NEW DELHI: Differences have appeared in the upper echelons of the BJP over its campaign against Pratibha Patil, with party chief Rajnath Singh apparently having reservations over the unabated attack on the UPA-Left presidential candidate.
"Rajnath Singh has virtually dissociated himself from all this. Nor has there been any statement so far by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee attacking Patil," a party functionary said.
BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley on Tuesday launched a Website of reported allegations against Patil following senior party leader L K Advani's appeal to all MPs and MLAs for a conscience vote and to the UPA to replace Patil as a presidential candidate.
Advani has also filed a petition with the Election Commission, which it rejected, to ask presidential candidates to declare their assets.
But Shekhawat's spokesperson Sushma Swaraj has been repeatedly saying that the vice-president believes there should be no personal allegations against his rival candidate.
A day after the launch of the Website on Patil, BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar came out with another set of allegations that relatives of Patil took loans from the Pratibha Mahila Cooperative Bank in the names of the family members of the bank staff.
Javadekar insisted that the RBI has found such loans, totalling about Rs 30 lakh, to be an act of "fraud".
Some in the BJP, however, privately say the party was going too far in its campaign. "What if she is elected the president? Will we be then boycotting her swearing-in? Will we then not visit her with of the other?" asked a BJP official.
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