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More controversy hit the favourite to win India's increasingly bitter presidential race on Wednesday, a day before votes are cast. The 72-year-old Pratibha Patil, who looks set to be India's first woman president, already faces allegations of shielding family members from accusations of links to murder, abetting suicide and financial scams.
In the latest twist, a court sharply rebuked a federal investigating agency for failing to probe ties between an alleged murderer and Patil's brother, the Indian Express reported.
Patil has denied all the allegations, but presidential candidates in India and their families are expected to be free of scandal. The ruling Congress party announced her candidacy last month even as opinion polls showed most Indians favoured a second term for the incumbent, President Abdul Kalam, who was nominated by the previous Hindu nationalist government. But Kalam pulled out of the presidential race after the Congress and the opposition Hindu nationalist-dominated alliance failed to agree on giving him another term.
The two main political alliances have since hurled bitter accusations against each other's candidates in a campaign that analysts said had taken the presidential poll to a new low in Indian history.
Under the constitution, the prime minister wields most of the executive power. The president plays a role in forming government at the state and federal levels, which still makes the job hotly contested. An electoral college of state and federal lawmakers will decide the presidential race in a secret ballot. Patil is backed by the ruling coalition and its supporters.
"Both the sides are totally bereft of ideas, politically and intellectually. This sort of a dirty campaign is totally new, it has set a new low," said political analyst Mahesh Rangarajan. Two days ahead of the poll, a pamphlet containing damaging articles about Patil's political record was posted to households.
The opposition has also launched an anti-Patil website. "India diminished, Indians disgraced," the website banner read. The Congress has hit out at Patil's rival, the 84-year-old Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who is supported by the Hindu nationalists.
Allegations against Shekhawat range from being suspended briefly for accepting a bribe as a policeman in 1947 to links with drug smugglers, the Hindi-language daily Dainik Bhaskar reported on Wednesday.
The Congress rejected nearly a dozen names, including those of foreign minister Pranab Mukherjee, in favour of Patil, whom analysts said was chosen because of her loyalty to the country's Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty. "The president should be someone of stature, someone who sets the tone for public debate. The Congress could have thought of more distinguished candidates," Rangarajan said.
Patil was a virtual unknown nationally before she was nominated and has been dubbed a national embarrassment by the media. In contrast, Kalam, a leading missile scientist, is often referred to as the "People's President" for his efforts to reach out to the nation while in office.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2007

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