Congress moves Supreme Court over Meenakshi Natarajan's RS nomination rejection

Congress has approached the Supreme Court after Meenakshi Natarajan's Rajya Sabha nomination from Madhya Pradesh was rejected. The dispute over a Telangana proceeding has sharpened the contest for the third seat ahead of the June 18 poll.

In Short

• Returning Officer rejected papers after BJP flagged Telangana affidavit disclosure
• Congress leaders met Election Commission seeking reversal of the rejection
• Party said the Telangana matter was only a court notice

The Congress has moved the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of its Rajya Sabha nominee Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination from Madhya Pradesh and is likely to mention the matter early in the morning seeking an urgent hearing before the court's vacation bench on Thursday.

The legal challenge comes days after the Returning Officer rejected Natarajan's nomination papers following objections raised by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The ruling party had alleged that the Congress leader failed to disclose details of a legal proceeding in Telangana in the affidavit submitted with her nomination papers.

On Wednesday, a high-level Congress delegation comprising K.C. Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Jairam Ramesh, Deepa Dasmunshi, Vivek Tankha, Abhishek Singhvi and Meenakshi Natarajan met Election Commission officials and sought reversal of the Returning Officer's decision.

The Congress maintained that the Telangana matter relates merely to a court notice and does not constitute a criminal case requiring disclosure in an election affidavit. Party leaders argued that the Election Commission's rules mandate disclosure only of pending criminal cases and not legal notices or proceedings in which no criminal charges have been formally taken cognisance of by a court.

The dispute began after BJP leaders formally objected to Natarajan's candidature, alleging suppression of material facts. The party contended that her failure to mention the Telangana case amounted to concealment of information and warranted rejection of her nomination.

Rejecting the allegation, the Congress asserted that Natarajan faces no criminal prosecution and was therefore under no obligation to disclose the matter cited by the BJP. Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said that the alleged criminal case cited as the basis for rejecting Natarajan's nomination does not legally exist as the competent court has not yet taken cognisance of the matter.

The nomination dispute has added a new twist to the Rajya Sabha election in Madhya Pradesh, where voting for three seats is scheduled on June 18.

In the 230-member Assembly, the BJP's strength of 164 MLAs gives it a comfortable path to winning two Rajya Sabha seats. The contest for the third seat, however, has emerged as a closely watched political battle.

The Congress has 63 MLAs in the Assembly, but two legislators — Rajendra Bharti and Mukesh Malhotra — are not eligible to vote in the Rajya Sabha election. Their absence reduces the party's effective strength to 61, making the arithmetic for the third seat more challenging.

With Natarajan's candidature now at the centre of a legal battle, the Supreme Court's intervention could have a significant impact on the outcome of the Rajya Sabha contest ahead of next week's polling.

- Ends