NEW DELHI: After high drama outside the Election Commission of India (ECI) headquarters on Tuesday, the poll panel agreed to meet a Congress delegation on Wednesday noon to discuss the rejection of senior party leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination for Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh.
In a letter to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, the ECI said that the meeting will take place at 12 pm on Wednesday and requested the names of delegation members along with vehicle details via email to facilitate entry arrangements.
The development came after a Congress delegation led by party general secretary (organisation) K C Venugopal arrived at the Election Commission office seeking an immediate audience with officials over Natarajan’s rejected nomination. However, the leaders were initially denied entry, triggering a standoff at the Commission’s gates.
Venugopal, accompanied by senior Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, former Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel and Sachin Pilot, threatened to stage a sit-in protest outside the office.
“This is a basic matter of democracy. We will sit here until they allow us to go inside. We are very responsible people. Former chief ministers, deputy chief ministers and MPs are here,” Venugopal told reporters.
Pilot said there were no FIRs or chargesheets against Natarajan. “We came here, but we were not allowed to enter despite informing them in writing two hours earlier. The seat that we were winning has been taken away by cancelling our candidate’s nomination. No one is ready to meet us. We are being told there are no officers in the Election Commission,” he alleged.
Following the protest, ECI officials allowed Venugopal and Ramesh to submit a memorandum to the EC officials.
In the memorandum, the Congress said that Natarajan had filed her nomination papers and election affidavit with truthful disclosures regarding all criminal cases known to her and that there was “no reason to doubt otherwise”.
The party claimed that objections to her nomination were based on “incorrect allegations” that she had failed to disclose a pending criminal case in Telangana. According to the memorandum, the case stems from a private complaint filed before the IV Additional Chief Judge, Nampally, and has not even been taken cognisance of by the court.
“The frivolity of the complaint is demonstrated by the fact that the court has not taken any cognisance of it,” the Congress said.
The memorandum further alleged that Natarajan was not given an opportunity to present her case before the Returning Officer rejected her nomination.
“It is stated that Ms. Natarajan had filed her election affidavit and nomination papers to the best of her knowledge without suppressing any criminal antecedent. Yet, without affording her an opportunity to be heard, the Returning Officer incorrectly rejected her nomination based on a one-sided and frivolous objection,” it said.
The Congress urged the Election Commission to immediately grant Natarajan and senior party leaders a personal hearing and, pending final adjudication, rescind the rejection order.
