Meenakshi Natarajan has alleged that the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Election Commission of India were involved in blocking her Rajya Sabha election bid from Madhya Pradesh. She made the allegation on June 21, saying her nomination was rejected through a “conspiracy” after the BJP realised it could not win the seat through normal political means.
What happened?
Congress nominated Meenakshi Natarajan as its candidate for a Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh for the June 18 election.During scrutiny of nomination papers, her nomination was rejected by the Returning Officer (RO). The objection came from a BJP candidate, who alleged that Natarajan had not disclosed a pending court matter in Telangana in the mandatory Form 26 affidavit.
The RO said the affidavit was incomplete because the case details were not mentioned. After the rejection, BJP candidates were declared elected unopposed for the available Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh.
Natarajan’s allegations
Natarajan claimed:
BJP deliberately filed a third candidate in Madhya Pradesh despite not having enough numbers, which she alleged was intended for “foul play”.
She accused the BJP and election officials of working together to get her nomination rejected.
She alleged that the Returning Officers were compromised and questioned the neutrality of the Election Commission.
Congress response
The Congress party supported Natarajan and argued that there was no valid reason to reject her nomination. The party approached the Election Commission, claiming the rejection was unlawful and asking for the decision to be reversed.
BJP/official side
The rejection was based on election rules related to disclosure of criminal cases in candidate affidavits. Officials said Natarajan was given an opportunity to clarify the issue but the required correction was not made in time.
Supreme Court action
Natarajan challenged the rejection in the Supreme Court, but the court dismissed her petition. The court said that under Article 329(b) of the Constitution, disputes related to elections generally must be raised through an election petition after the election process, not by directly stopping the election through a writ petition.
Political impact
The controversy has increased tensions between Congress and BJP over election fairness. Congress leaders have described the episode as political misuse of the election process, while the official reason given for rejection remains the alleged non-disclosure issue in the nomination affidavit.
