Team Anna now target UPA's presidential nominee

NEW DELHI: Team Anna has now trained its guns on UPA's presidential candidate Pranab Mukherjee. On Sunday, members of the Team Anna charged that the finance minister was unfit to be president as there were allegations of corruption against him. They demanded that the government should investigate the charges against the finance minister before the presidential election.

Team Anna members Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia alleged that Pranab Mukherjee should not contest the presidential poll as there were corruption charges against him.

"There are serious allegations of corruption against Pranab Mukherjee. It will be wrong if he becomes the president. There should be an impartial probe into the charges we have levelled against Pranab Mukherjee," Kejriwal said.

They alleged Mukherjee had been named in the 2,500-crore rice export scam. Team Anna said Pranab Mukherjee should come clean on allegations of irregularities in rice export to Ghana, when he was the external affairs minister. They also alleged corruption in Scorpene deal and Navy war room leak when Mukherjee was the defence minister.

Manish Sisodia, another Team Anna member, said: "All the allegations against Mukherjee should be investigated freely because it will raise big questions if any person with corruption charges becomes our president."

Kejriwal said that Mukherjee's candidature was a ploy by the government to shield him. "Once Pranab is elected as president, he cannot be probed," Team Anna member said.

Earlier, Team Anna had released corruption dossiers on the prime minister and 15 of his ministerial colleagues. The Prime Minister's Office had rejected Team Anna's demand to investigate allegations against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on coal blocks allocation.