PA Sangma moves SC against Pranab Mukherjee

Former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma on Tuesday challenged Pranab Mukherjee's election as the President of India by filing a petition in the Supreme Court. Sangma, who was backed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and some of its allies along with the chief ministers of Odisha and Tamil Nadu, has been alleging discrepancies in Mukherjee's nomination papers.

However, the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has distanced itself from Sangma's decision to move Supreme Court after Mukherjee trounced him by a massive margin. Sangma in his petition prayed before the Supreme Court for setting aside Mukherjee's election on the ground that he was holding an office of profit. Satya Pal Jain, who is Sangma's lawyer and a former BJP MP, is assisting him in his professional capacity. The former Lok Sabha Speaker has alleged that Mukherjee was not qualified for the Presidential election as he was holding an office of profit chairman of Indian Statistical Institute at the time of filing his nomination. Sangma also claims that Mukherjee’s resignation was wrongly accepted and the signature on a copy of the letter submitted by Mukherjee had been forged. He has pleaded that the Supreme Court should declare Mukherjee’s election as invalid and declare him as the winner as there were only two contestants.