New Delhi, Jul 12: Team Sangma seems to be using every trick in its book to spoil the chances of UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee from becoming the next President of India. Towards this endeavour, the team campaigning for BJP’s presidential nominee Sangma has threatened to file an election petition in the event of Pranab winning the race to Raisina Hill. The presidential poll is slated to be held on Jul 19.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legal cell chief Satya Pal Jain has been quoted as saying, “Our case has a strong merit but any election petition can be filed only after the result. We are confident that Sangma will win but in case he does not, we will challenge Mukherjee’s candidature.”

The decision to file a petition was made following a meeting that was attended by Jain, BJP leader and former law minister Ram Jethmalani and Janata Party chief Subramanian Swamy. According to the team, the Supreme Court could dismiss the election petition, declare the poll void and order fresh polls; the other possibility was that the poll be declared void and the other contender being declared the winner.

The Election Commission had earlier rejected Sangma’s plea against Returning Officer VK Agnihotri’s Jul 3 order that had accepted Mukherjee’s nomination papers. The Sangma camp had cited that Pranab had held offices of profit during his presidential nomination. They had also alleged that the signature on his resignation letter from the Indian Statistical Institute and the one on his nomination papers were different.