• Source:JND

A massive political row has erupted after the nomination of Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan for the Rajya Sabha elections was rejected in Madhya Pradesh. In the late evening, Congress General Secretary in charge of Communications, Jairam Ramesh, arrived at the office of the Election Commission of India to file a petition against the rejection.

Ramesh wasn't allowed to enter the premises and was stopped at the gate by security officials, which led to a verbal altercation.

"We have come here to submit a petition. Our candidate has been disqualified. We just want to submit our petition to the Election Commission...Why can't I sit in the waiting room? I have been a Member of Parliament for over 35 years. I have been waiting here for over 10 minutes. You are deliberately stopping us. I have never seen anything like this," he was heard saying to security officials.

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KC Venugopal, Bhupesh Baghel, Sachin Pilot and other Congress leaders also arrived at the EC office. Venugopal, while talking to the media while leaving for the EC office, lashed out at the BJP, calling the nomination rejection "completely undemocratic." He said, "Democracy has been killed."

Natarajan was the Congress candidate against BJP's Mahest Kevat, who was banking upon cross-voting for his win as the grand old party has 61 MLAs against the required 58.

The Returning Officer rejected her nomination based on a complaint filed by the BJP alleging non-disclosure of a court case in her affidavit.

BJP alleged that a former Hyderabad corporator, A Srilatha, has filed a petition against Natarajan in the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Court in Hyderabad, accusing her of giving political survey work to a man named Kumbham Shivakumar Reddy, whom Srilatha has accused of molestation and issuing death threats.

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However, Congress has rejected the allegations and argued that no FIR has been registered in the matter and only a notice has been issued, which does not need to be mentioned in any affidavit.


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