Bhubaneswar:
UPA's presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee took a dig at his rival PA Sangma on Wednesday over the BJP-backed candidate's remark that he is a 'failed' Finance Minister, and that the Rashtrapati Bhavan is only used as a dumping ground for him.
Currently on a country-wide poll campaign trail, Mr Mukherjee said, "These sorts of phrases should not be used." Replying to Mr Sangma's remarks he said, "Whether I have failed or succeeded ... surely posterity will judge. I will not comment on it."
Pranab Mukherjee was in Odisha today to meet the state Congress legislators and other party leaders.
Yesterday in Mumbai, Mr Sangma stepped up his attack on Mr Mukherjee by saying, "Raisina Hill is being used as a dumping ground for the failed Finance Minister."
Facing criticism, Mr Sangma tried to clarify his remarks on Wednesday. During his campaign trail in Ranchi, he said, "No, I am not saying it is a dumping ground... I was saying in the context of Congress party sponsoring a finance minister who has failed to steer the economy of the country."
"Be it price rise, devaluation of rupee, be it the GDP growth, be it FDI, everywhere it has failed... and you (Congress) are promoting him (Mr Mukherjee). That was the context I had referred," Mr Sangma said.
Both the presidential candidates have been at loggerheads since they filed their nominations for the race to the Raisina Hills. Mr Sangma's election agent and BJD member of Parliament Bhartrihari Mahatab had sought that Mr Mukherjee, the Congress-led UPA's candidate for the President poll, be disqualified from the race as, he claimed, he held an office of profit as Chairman of the Indian Statistical Institute on the day that he filed his nomination papers last month. But the Election Commission rejected the demand to re-examine Mr Mukherjee's nomination.