The Bharatiya Janata Party has said that the chances of the Third Front ignoring both the United Progressive Alliance and National Democratic Alliance candidates are slim.

Party spokesperson Sushma Swaraj said that it is improbable that over one lakh voters will abstain in the presidential elections.

"In next twenty days the scene would change from morning to evening and those who appear to be standing on the other side of the fence would be standing with us when we explain to them about the ideological battle that we are fighting. We would tell the voters of the Electoral College that Shekhawatji has a bigger stature than the UPA candidate. "We will also tell them how an attempt is being made to install a family loyalist in the Rashtrapati Bhavan [Images] after having weakened the office of prime minister. We are neither fighting a one-day battle nor are we playing a Test match. The game is going to be played over three weeks," she quipped.

Swaraj defended the stinging attack launched by BJP spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad against Pratibha Patil 24 hours after it was announced that no personal attack would be carried out against her.

"He was merely raising the issues which have come up in the order of the high court on the murder of the husband of Rajani Patil, who was killed in 2005," she said.

Shekhawat would file his nomination on June 25, 2007, at 11.30. "This is very significant because Indira Gandhi [Images] imposed emergency on the same day in 1975," Swaraj said. 

In his press conference, Ravi Shankar Prasad quoted extensively from the high court judgment delivered in February 2007 where the court felt that this was a fit case to be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation.

He also claimed that Rajani Patil had met Sonia Gandhi and told her about her difficulties and how a powerful lobby was saving the accused persons who were members of the Congress.