Congress Leader Meenakshi Natarajan's Rajya Sabha Nomination Rejected Over Affidavit Issues

The rejection of Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s candidature Tuesday (June 9) ahead of the elections to Rajya Sabha provoked angry Congress protests, including a sit-in protest by party national general secretary K C Venugopal outside the Election Commission’s (EC) office in New Delhi.

The latest round of Rajya Sabha elections, which has 24 seats at stake, includes three seats from Madhya Pradesh. Natarajan, a senior Congress leader and former Lok Sabha MP, had been nominated by the party from the state, and the Congress had been making arrangements to ensure her election would go smoothly without any cross-voting from its own MLAs.

But her candidature was rejected during scrutiny of nominations by the Returning Officer (RO) concerned on Tuesday. Here’s what to know about why her candidature was rejected and what are the reasons for disqualification of an individual’s candidature to the Upper House of Parliament.

Natarajan is a former president of the Youth Congress and former Lok Sabha MP from Haryana’s Mandsaur (2009-14). She was also a Congress general secretary and has long been regarded as part of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi’s trusted circle.

Natarajan’s candidature has led to dissatisfaction within the party itself. Senior state unit leader Naresh Gyanchandani had publicly questioned the decision while raising the possibility of cross-voting by Congress legislators, before resigning from the party on Monday.

In the meantime, BJP state general secretary Rahul Kothari filed an objection to Natarajan’s candidature with the RO, alleging that she had failed to fully disclose details of a case against her in the affidavit submitted with her nomination papers. Kothari was referring to a private complaint against various individuals pending before a court in Hyderabad. Natarajan, who was party in-charge in Telangana when the complaint first surfaced, has also been reportedly named.

The Congress claimed, however, that this was not a criminal case. Congress Rajya Sabha MP and senior lawyer Vivek Tankha wrote in a post on X: “Only a notice has been received stating why proceedings for Rs 10 crore compensation should not be initiated against her and other people. Meenakshi ji’s lawyer has responded to this notice. No FIR has been filed.”

RO Arvind Sharma, however, rejected Natarajan’s nomination. In his order, the RO recorded that Natarajan “submitted an incomplete affidavit in Form 26 and concealed material facts” related to the court case. “This amounts to withholding complete information about the candidate from voters, and it stands established that incomplete information was presented in lieu of full disclosure,” the order read.

A document on the EC’s website titled “Qualifications & Disqualifications for contesting elections to Parliament and State Legislature (except J & K), and documents and other requirements at the time of filing of nomination papers” states that the affidavit in Form 26 furnishes particulars relating to criminal antecedents, if any, (cases of convictions and all pending cases), details of PAN and status of filing of income tax return of self, spouse and dependents, details of the assets (movable and immovable etc.) and liabilities or dues of candidate, spouse and all dependents to government and public financial institutions, details of profession or occupation of candidate and spouse, and highest educational qualification of the candidate.

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After her nomination was rejected, Natarajan said the BJP was indulging in “the politics of muzzling the democracy, constitution” to ensure elections to all three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh went their way.

“What was limited to vote theft, has now become seat theft… When they felt this was a united house and not the divided house, then in guise of legal notice, which was not taken cognisance, they challenged the election petition, both our advocates presented the arguments, those were not heard, and the decision came. Their intention has become clear. This is not about one candidature, there is a serious situation in the country. We will challenge this,” she said during a press interaction.

The EC is scheduled to meet a Congress delegation at noon on Wednesday.