Bhubaneswar/ New Delhi, July 7: The Congress today demanded an unqualified apology from chief minister Naveen Patnaik and the ruling Biju Janata Dal for accusing former finance minister Pranab Mukherjee of doling out a special financial package to Bihar and other states to push his presidential aspirations.

A judgment of the Supreme Court came handy for the Congress’ Odisha unit chief spokesperson Narasingha Mishra to come down heavily on the ruling party which has spearheaded a campaign against Mukherjee for his anti-Odisha stance.

In New Delhi on Friday, the Supreme Court had dismissed as “worthless” and “farcical” a public interest litigation seeking an inquiry into the alleged misuse of office by Mukherjee to promote his presidential candidature.

Citing the example of Bihar, an advocate had filed the PIL alleging that Bihar had got a financial package of Rs 20,000 crore instead of Rs 10,000 crore from the Planning Commission in return for support to Mukherjee.

The PIL, filed by advocate Manoharlal Sharma, accused the former finance minister of violating provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act in appealing to all and sundry for votes while still holding office of finance minister.

The petitioner claimed that Mukherjee, while holding the office of the finance minister, had used his office for securing votes for himself. “This was tantamount to bribing voters,” he alleged.

The bench, comprising Justices Aftab Alam and H.L. Gokhale, heard his arguments yesterday and rejected the petition.

“His (Mukherjee’s ) conduct in no way attracts Sections 7 and 13(1) (d) of the PCA, Justice Alam said and remarked, “this submission is utterly fantastic”. He also threatened to impose costs of Rs 50,000 on Sharma but resisted from doing so after Sharma pleaded against it. “This court is not a theatre for your farcical plays,” Justice Alam warned, before throwing the petition out.

On July 1, Naveen, who has proposed the candidature of former Lok Sabha Speaker P.A. Sangma, had said: “Pranab Mukherjee as the Union finance minister was doling out huge sums of money going to lakhs of crores to Bihar, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Could it be that this money is going because he wants certain parties like Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (U), Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress to support his candidature? …This is not private money. But people’s money…your money.”

Now that the Supreme Court has ruled that these allegations are “rubbish and have no material evidence”, Odisha Congress leader Mishra said Naveen Patnaik and his party owed an apology to the people for misleading them. “It was a blatant attempt to assassinate the character of Mr Mukherjee,” he said.