NEW DELHI: A political storm erupted on Tuesday after the nomination of Congress Rajya Sabha candidate Meenakshi Natarajan from Madhya Pradesh was rejected, triggering protests by senior party leaders and a confrontation outside the Election Commission office in Delhi.Congress leaders, including Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel and Sachin Pilot, arrived at the Election Commission office to protest the decision. Visuals from the scene showed Jairam Ramesh being stopped from entering the premises.Before heading to the ECI office, Congress general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal condemned the development, saying, “…Democracy has been killed…”Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh chief minister Mohan Yadav hailed the decision and called on the Congress party to “introspect”.“As you all know, the Congress candidate concealed the information of criminal background, it should have been declared. But unfortunately, the Congress people concealed. The decision that was taken, I welcome this scrutiny. Now the Congress should introspect, they were in fear. We welcome the decision,” he said.The controversy began after the Returning Officer for the Rajya Sabha election rejected Natarajan’s nomination. According to an official of the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the nomination was rejected on the grounds that she had allegedly concealed information about a case in her affidavit.The objection was raised by BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat, who is contesting the third Rajya Sabha seat. His lawyer, Sanket Gupta, alleged that a criminal case pending against Natarajan in a Telangana court had not been disclosed in her nomination papers, making her affidavit incomplete. Gupta said the Returning Officer accepted the objection and rejected the nomination, adding that there were several other deficiencies in the paperwork.Venugopal accused the BJP of attempting to “destroy the democratic process” and alleged that the ruling party resorted to rejecting Natarajan’s nomination after its efforts to influence Congress MLAs had failed. He said the party would challenge the decision both legally and politically.
