Congress Protests Outside Rashtrapati Bhavan Over Rejection of Rajya Sabha Candidate's Nomination Papers

A high voltage drama erupted in the national capital on Friday after the Madhya Pradesh Congress MLAs decide to march towards the Rashtrapati Bhawan from the party headquarters over the issue of rejection of the party’s Rajya Sabha candidate Meenakshi Natrajan’s nomination papers claiming that the BJP and Election Commission of India (EC) are “partners in crime in seat chori”. The Delhi Police, which had made adequate security arrangements detained the Congress MLAs and leaders from outside the old party headquarters 24 Akbar Road soon they climbed the barricades placed outside the main entrance. The Congress leaders had decided to march to the Rashtrapati Bhavan after their request for a meeting with President Droupadi Murmu was rejected via an email thAt the Madhya Pradesh Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar received at 10.27 a.m. Natarajan attended a press conference ahead of the protest march, as her petition against the rejection of the nomination on charges of not revealing details of a private complaint filed in Telangana in the affidavit. All MLAs except Kamal Nath attended the press conference and the protest. During the press conference, Natrajan, who is considered close to Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, claimed that she had duly filled Form 26 and there was no column to mention private complaints. “If there was a column for it, I would have given the details. The root of this entire matter is Form 26, in which it was claimed that I failed to record certain information and concealed facts,” she said. She said she wrote “not applicable” in the affidavit on criminal records, as there was only a legal notice against her. In a statement, the Congress said the saffron party wanted to win a third Rajya Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh “by hook or by crook” though it did not have the numbers. “The BJP and the ECI are partners in crime in this latest instance of ‘seat chori’.” It said that the poll panel’s partisan agenda becomes clearer when its behavior in Madhya Pradesh is contrasted to its behavior in Jharkhand. Parimal Nathwani who has not even filed his own name accurately in his affidavit has been given all the opportunity to clarify and fix errors in his own Form 26 submission. The party said that the Returning Officer’s decision was beyond the Supreme Court’s direction that it is “not the duty of the Returning Officer at the stage of scrutiny to draw the attention of the appellant to the aforesaid substantial defect for the purpose of getting the same cured”. “When it comes to the Prime Minister’s friends, norms and precedents are tossed aside in favour of expedience,” it said. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari said the enthusiasm and unity the Congress displayed in the election had “rattled” Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the entire BJP leadership in Madhya Pradesh and that was precisely why they used during the Rajya Sabha election a tactic that is usually seen in minor local elections for ‘sarpanch’ or ‘janpad’ posts. Singhar said that given the prevailing circumstances, the country is drifting towards “electoral autocracy”. “The centralisation of executive power, weak legislative oversight of the government, the curtailing of freedom of expression of the common citizen, and the harassment of journalists — all of this is happening in our country today,” he alleged. There is a need to reflect on the current situation in the country, he said. Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh incharge Harish Chaudhary said that the Rajya Sabha Elections of June 2026 are a story of two candidates one who is a billionaire friend of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a representative of corporate interests, and another who comes from an ordinary family and represents the values of the Constitution. In Madhya Pradesh, the BJP did not have the required number of MLAs to win a third Rajya Sabha seat and was 10 MLAs short of the number required. Despite that, the BJP introduced an official candidate in the election, he said. “When it was becoming clear that the BJP would not be able to break the Congress Legislative Party in Madhya Pradesh through horse-trading or other means, the BJP resorted to underhand tricks to ensure the cancellation of Natarajan’s nomination,” Singhar added.