In a major twist to the upcoming elections for three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, the Returning Officer on Tuesday rejected the nomination of Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan after a BJP complaint alleged she concealed information regarding a case in the affidavit.
The complaint was submitted by BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat, fielded against Natarajan in the third Rajya Sabha seat. He alleged that Natarajan deliberately hid information about a case filed against her in Telangana. A similar objection was also filed by BJP state general secretary Rahul Kothari.
Subsequently, the RO and principal secretary (Vidhan Sabha) Arvind Sharma, rejected Natarajan's nomination papers, noting that she had full knowledge of the complaint filed against her in a Hyderabad court but failed to mention it in the affidavit.
The matter pertains to a private complaint filed against Natarajan by an ex-corporator in September 2025, in which the additional chief judicial magistrate (ACJM) in Hyderabad issued her a notice under Section 223 of the BNSS.
In the two-page order on Tuesday evening, the RO noted that Natrajan had filed a reply in October 2025, which clearly proved that she had full knowledge of the entire matter. This establishes that she has filed an incomplete Affidavit Form 26 for RS polls, the RO said.
Natarajan, who is the AICC in-charge for Telangana, reacted to the development, calling it a "theft" of the RS seat.
"When they (BJP top brass) found that Congress is not a divided, but instead a united house in MP and hence they won’t be able to get their third candidate elected owing to insufficient number of votes, then under the guise of a legal notice (whose cognisance had not been taken), they challenged my nomination," she alleged.
"Though our legal team put forth their arguments in the matter very strongly, the RO, while deciding the issue, didn’t take note of those arguments. This is not a question of a Rajya Sabha seat or my papers getting rejected, it’s a matter of one-party system and dictatorship being forced on the country and the federal structure being severely undermined," she said.
The rejection of Natarajan's nomination papers has paved the way for the unopposed election of BJP's Kewat to the third RS seat. This means that all three candidates of the ruling party, including BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh and state secretary Rajneesh Agrawal will get elected to the upper house of the Parliament without any electoral contest.
Calling the order unconstitutional and illegal, Congress's legal expert Ajay Gupta said, "No case or FIR was registered in against our candidate... The RS polls RO’s order rejecting our candidate’s nomination is a non-speaking order (decision issued without providing the underlying reasoning or rationale)."
"The one-sided decision without even mentioning our side's objections amounts to theft of the Rajya Sabha seat," he alleged.
He further stated that the order came at such a time, leaving the Congress with little or no room to appeal against it in the courts as both the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the Supreme Court are currently on vacation.
Meanwhile, top Congress leaders rushed to the office of the Election Commission in New Delhi late on Tuesday night to hand over a petition against the rejection, but were denied entry.
The security refused the leaders, including Jairam Ramesh, to enter the EC office, saying they had not taken permission from the poll body.
Congress leaders K C Venugopal, Sachin Pilot, Bhupesh Baghel and Ramesh staged a dharna outside the EC office.
Meanwhile, a communique from the EC said it will meet the party representatives on Wednesday.
In a post on X, Venugopal called the RO order the "daylight robbery of democracy."
"Rejecting Smt.Meenakshi Natarajan ji's nomination to the Rajya Sabha is a blatant attempt by the BJP to destroy the democratic process in a clandestine manner. The allegation of any error or non-disclosure in her nomination is complete humbug and a desperate attempt to snatch a seat from the INC," Venugopal said.
"They stooped so low as to reject her nomination when they realised that their dirty tricks to compromise our INC MLAs is going to fail. This shows the BJP's hollow commitment to the Constitution and democracy. At every step of the way, they are hell-bent on Vote Chori -- one way or another," the Congress leader said.
"We will not take this daylight robbery of democracy lying down, and will fight this legally as well as politically on the streets tooth-and-nail," he added.
Welcoming the RO's order, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav alleged that the Congress might have intentionally omitted the details of the case from the affidavit out of fear of losing the polls.
"What has happened with the Congress candidate for RS polls today resembles what happened to Congress in the 2024 LS polls in Indore seat, where the party’s candidate Akshay Kanti Bam had opted out of the poll race after filing the nomination papers," the CM alleged.
(With inputs from Online Desk, PTI)
