Suspense and sensation was created in the scrutiny of nominations for the July 19 Presidential elections on Monday on prospects of rejection of UPA nominee Pranab Mukherjee's candidature for holding an "office of profit" as the head of the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI).

The Bhartiya Janata Party, backing former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A Sangma, challenged his candidature and sought its rejection. The ruling will come on Tuesday, though it may not shut Mukherjee's prospects.

The ruling Congress leaders were stunned for at least for half an hour as they huddled into meeting with fears that Sangma may be declared the President elected unopposed because of a silly lapse until Mukherjee himself stepped in to point out that he had resigned from the ISI post on June 20 before filing the nomination papers and hence nothing to worry about.

Rajya Sabha Secretary-General Dr Vivek K Agnihotri, who is the returning officer for this election, adjourned the scrutiny saying it was "inconclusive" and he would give opportunity to "other side" on Tuesday before giving his ruling on the objection raised by BJP lawyer Satpal Jain on behalf of Sangma.

Nominations of all other candidates were rejected since they were not proposed by a minimum of 50 MPs or MLAs and seconded by an equal number of them as mandatory, but the announcement was withheld until Tuesday in view of the hurdle created by the surprise objection. There was no clarity if the last date of withdrawals set for June 4 will also be postponed by a day in view of delay in completion of the scrutiny.

In adjourning the scrutiny to Tuesday, the Returning Officer was only acting on the Section 5E(6) of the President and Vice-President Elections Act that entitles the candidate "time to rebut it (objection) not later than the next day, but one following the date fixed for scrutiny." He preferred to adjourn until the next day to seek legal opinions from the Attorney General, the Union Law Secretary and Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath before deciding on the objection.

Mukherjee has been asked to file his response by 3 pm on Tuesday and there may be a hearing on the issue before the Returning Officer announces his decision through a speaking order.

Jain, who has been the BJP's national secretary, sought rejection of nomination of Mukherjee on the ground that he is not qualified to contest under Article 58(2) of Constitution which says: "A person shall not be eligible for election as President if he holds any office of the profit under the Government of India or the Government of any State or under local or other authority subject to the control of any of the said governments." Sangma also filed a separate objection on the same grounds.

Home Minister P Chidambaram, who is himself a senior advocate, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, who appeared in the scrutiny on behalf of Mukherjee, didn't react immediately, saying "we will get back" after the Returning Officer asked them to respond by 3 PM on Tuesday.

An old person, who may be a rejected candidate or his representative, sounded a bugle he had brought in as Chidambaram and Bansal emerged from the Returning Officer's chamber and Chidambaram looked quite upset and disturbed as in Tamil Nadu the bugle is blown at the time of the death ceremony, though Bansal may have thought it was just a "war bugle."

Since the Returning Officer is handicapped to decide the Constitutional point involved and Mukherjee has a clear alibi of resigning from the ISI chairmanship a week before filing his papers, advocate Jain's objection may not stop the former union finance minister racing to occupy the Rashtrapati Bhawan.

However, Odisha Chief Minister and Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supremo Naveen Patnaik on Monday built a case for challenging his election in the Supreme Court under Section 18(1)(a) of the Act that says the court can disqualify an elected President on the ground of "the offence of bribery or undue influence at the election has been committed by the returned candidate or by any person with the consent of the returned candidate."

In Bhubaneshwar, he accused Mukherjee of doling out large sums of money to certain states to buy votes in the upcoming election. Pointing out how Mukherjee bought votes of the ruling Janata Dal(U) in Bihar by giving a grant of Rs 20,000 crores to Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, he told reporters: ""Pranab Mukherjee as Finance Minister of India had doled out huge sum of money to certain states like Bihar, Bengal and UP. Could it be that this money is going because he wants certain parties to support his candidature as Rashtrapati of India?"

Bansal, who is the authorised agent of Mukherjee in this election, said he and Chidambaram met Mukherjee for his advice on the objection and they were happy when the latter told them he had resigned from the ISI well in advance of filing the nomination.

"He is so meticulous about everything that we did not expect him to err and caught in this manner. Mukherjee would be filing a written reply to the Returning Officer by 3 PM on Tuesday," Bansal told reporters.

The party seniors are, however, blaming him for risking the Presidential election by ignoring the party decision to get the nominations of Dr Karan Singh and Mohsina Kidwai too filed as the dummy candidates for meeting such an eventuality and they withdraw after Mukherjee's nomination is held valid in scrutiny.

Officials in the Election Commission, who have handled such situations, said it is for the Returning Officer to decide on such objections, though his powers are limited to check if there is any irregularity in the nomination paper. They said the Returning Officer is, however, not supposed to interpret or decide on the Constitutional provisions as that role in the instant case falls on the Supreme Court and that too on an election petition after the elections are over.

Even before a clarity came that Mukherjee holds no office of profit, the ISI in Kolkata and his office in Delhi were quick to point out that he has resigned as its chairman a week before filing his nomination papers. Both also claimed that Mukherjee was also drawing salary or any allowances entitled to him as the ISI chairman to come under the definition of the office of profit attracting disqualification to contest an election.

Only specified posts are exempted, through an Act of Parliament, from from the operation of Article 102(1)(a) which prohibits a person from contesting various elections, including that of the President.

This is the second high-profile instance involving a leader coming under cloud under this Article. It were Congress President Sonia Gandhi who had to resign her Lok Sabha seat in 2006 when there were objections that as Chairperson, National Advisory Council (NAC), she was holding an Office of Profit. She contested and won the Rae Bareli seat again. Later, the Office of Profit Act were amended and Chairperson, NAC was exempted from it. Sonia, however, became NAC Chairperson again only in March 2010.

Bansal walked out of the Parliament House sheepishly at the prospects of the blame coming on him if Mukherjee's nomination were rejected since he was the overall incharge of coordinating the entire process of securing signatures and filing the nomination. Only after getting a pat from Mukherjee that nothing has gone wrong, he boldly faced the Media, asserting that "he had resigned as chairman of ISI on June 20, a week before he filed his nominations and we have nothing to worry about."

He said Sangma's claim was factually incorrect, legally ill-conceived and untenable and that will be all clear when the Returning Officer pronounces his order.