Jairam Ramesh, the Congress general secretary in charge of communications, reached the poll panel's office in New Delhi in the evening to submit a petition challenging the Returning Officer's decision. Senior party leaders accused the authorities of acting on a politically motivated objection, while the Bharatiya Janata Party maintained that the nomination papers were defective because Natarajan had not disclosed details linked to a case in Telangana.
The rejection came during scrutiny of nominations for the June 18 Rajya Sabha polls, in which three seats from Madhya Pradesh are falling vacant. The BJP, with its commanding strength in the state Assembly, was already positioned to win two seats. Congress had been preparing to defend its claim over the third seat through its legislative strength, but the disqualification of Natarajan's nomination has altered the arithmetic and raised the possibility of the BJP winning all three seats without a serious contest.
The immediate dispute centres on the affidavit filed by Natarajan, a former Lok Sabha member and AICC functionary now handling organisational responsibilities in Telangana. BJP leaders alleged that she concealed material information relating to proceedings in Telangana. Congress rejected the charge, saying there was no criminal case against her and that the objection was being used to engineer her exclusion from the election.
Natarajan described the rejection as a political act rather than a legal one and accused the BJP of attempting "seat-chori". Congress leaders said the Returning Officer's decision denied the party a fair opportunity to contest a seat for which it had sufficient support among its legislators. The party argued that any ambiguity in an affidavit should have been examined through due process rather than being used to invalidate the nomination at the scrutiny stage.
The BJP countered that nomination papers for Rajya Sabha elections require full disclosure and that non-disclosure of relevant legal proceedings cannot be treated as a technicality. Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya claimed the objection was based on documents connected with Telangana and said the Congress should answer why the information was not placed before the Returning Officer.
Congress leaders from Telangana sought to blunt the allegation by saying Natarajan was not an accused in any criminal case. They said the matter referred to by the BJP involved a private complaint arising from allegations made by a woman against a Congress functionary, and that Natarajan had only responded legally to claims made in that proceeding. Telangana Congress leaders accused the BJP of distorting the record to influence the Rajya Sabha contest in Madhya Pradesh.
The row also disrupted Congress's plan to move its Madhya Pradesh legislators to Karnataka amid fears of cross-voting. Party managers had been preparing to keep the MLAs together before polling, reflecting the high-stakes nature of the contest. After Natarajan's nomination was rejected, those arrangements were thrown into uncertainty as the party shifted focus to the legal and procedural challenge before the poll panel.
The dispute has wider significance because Rajya Sabha elections are often decided by narrow legislative calculations, and nomination scrutiny can become decisive when parties field additional candidates or attempt to force contests. Voting takes place through proportional representation by means of the single transferable vote, and MLAs cast open ballots under rules intended to prevent secret cross-voting. For three seats in a 230-member Assembly, the first-preference quota is high enough to make disciplined voting essential for both sides.
Madhya Pradesh sends 11 members to the Rajya Sabha. The seats now before the electorate are tied to terms ending later this month, including the seat held by Congress veteran Digvijaya Singh. The BJP has named candidates including Tarun Chugh and Mahesh Kewat, while its move to put up another nominee had already sharpened pressure on Congress before the scrutiny decision.
The article Congress contests Natarajan poll rejection appeared first on Latest India news, analysis and reports on Newspack by India Press Agency).