Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination wrongly rejected, Congress tells EC

The Congress on Wednesday formally told the Election Commission that the returning officer had wrongly rejected the nomination of party leader Meenakshi Natarajan for the Rajya Sabha elections on the basis of objections filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Natarajan was the Congress’ sole candidate for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. Her nomination was rejected on Tuesday after the BJP claimed that she had withheld information in her affidavit about an alleged criminal case pending against her in Telangana.

The returning officer had sought Natarajan’s response and given her until 6 pm on Tuesday to present her case. After considering her explanation, the officer rejected her nomination. However, Natarajan alleged that the Congress’ advocates “were not heard”.

On Wednesday, a delegation of Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala told reporters that they had made a detailed representation to the poll panel.

Singhvi said that the returning officer for the polls had passed a wrong order.

He said that Section 33A of the 1951 Representation of the People Act requires candidates to disclose cases filed against them that have a punishment of two years or more, and matters in which charges have been framed.

“The process of framing charges is a judicial process,” Singhvi said.

He added that...

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