Congress Candidate Meenakshi Natarajan's Nomination Rejected in Rajya Sabha Elections

In a major twist to the upcoming elections for three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, the Returning Officer on Tuesday rejected the nomination of Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan after a BJP complaint alleged she concealed information regarding a case in the affidavit. The complaint was submitted by BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat, fielded against Natarajan in the third Rajya Sabha seat. He alleged that Natarajan deliberately hid information about a case filed against her in Telangana. Subsequently, the RO and principal secretary (Vidhan Sabha) Arvind Sharma rejected Natarajan's nomination papers on grounds of hiding information regarding the matter. The matter pertains to a private complaint filed against Natarajan by an ex-corporator in September 2025, in which the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) in Hyderabad issued her a notice under Section 223 of the BNSS. Natarajan is the AICC in-charge for Telangana. The rejection of Natarajan's nomination papers, has paved the way for the unopposed election of BJP's Kewat to the third RS seat. This means that all three candidates of the ruling party, including, BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh and state secretary Rajneesh Agrawal will get elected to the upper house of the Parliament without any electoral contest. Calling the order unconstitutional and illegal, Congress's legal expert Ajay Gupta said, "No case or FIR was registered in against our candidate... The RS polls RO’s order rejecting our candidate’s nomination is a non-speaking order (decision issued without providing the underlying reasoning or rationale)." "The one-sided decision without even mentioning our side's objections amounts to theft of the Rajya Sabha seat," he alleged. He further stated that the order came at such a time, leaving the Congress with little or no room to appeal against it in the courts as both the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court are currently on vacation. Meanwhile, top Congress leaders rushed to the office of the Election Commission in New Delhi late on Tuesday night to hand over a petition against the rejection, but were denied entry. The security refused the leaders, including Jairam Ramesh, to enter the EC office, saying they had not taken permission from the poll body. Congress leaders K C Venugopal, Sachin Pilot, Bhupesh Baghel and Ramesh staged a dharna outside the EC office. Meanwhile, a communique from the EC said it will meet the party representatives on Wednesday. In a post on X, Venugopal called the RO order the "daylight robbery of democracy." "Rejecting Smt.Meenakshi Natarajan ji's nomination to the Rajya Sabha is a blatant attempt by the BJP to destroy the democratic process in a clandestine manner. The allegation of any error or non-disclosure in her nomination is complete humbug and a desperate attempt to snatch a seat from the INC," Venugopal said. "They stooped so low as to reject her nomination when they realised that their dirty tricks to compromise our INC MLAs is going to fail. This shows the BJP's hollow commitment to the Constitution and democracy. At every step of the way, they are hell-bent on Vote Chori -- one way or another," the Congress leader said. "We will not take this daylight robbery of democracy lying down, and will fight this legally as well as politically on the streets tooth-and-nail," he added. Welcoming the RO's order, chief minister Mohan Yadav alleged that the Congress might have intentionally omitted the details of the case from the affidavit out of fear of losing the polls. "Possibly the Congress leaders intentionally concealed the details of the criminal matter. They knew their candidate wouldn't be elected, so they intentionally omitted the details in the nomination papers. What has happened with the Congress candidate for RS polls today resembles what happened to Congress in 2024 LS polls in Indore seat, where the party’s candidate Akshay Kanti Bam had opted out of the poll race after filing the nomination papers," the CM alleged. (With inputs from Online Desk, PTI)