Congress protests rejection of Rajya Sabha nomination for Meenakshi Natarajan, calls decision 'illegal'
The Election Commission barred the Congress candidate citing a pending criminal case, but the party insists no such case exists.
India's Congress party has mounted a sharp challenge to the Election Commission after its Rajya Sabha candidate Meenakshi Natarajan had her nomination rejected, with party leaders accusing the body of acting on false grounds and activists staging a pointed protest outside electoral offices in Madhya Pradesh.
The Election Commission rejected Natarajan's candidacy for a Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh, citing a pending criminal case against her as the basis for the disqualification. The nomination rejection has become a flashpoint between the opposition party and the poll body.
Senior Congress leader and advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who met with Election Commission officials in Delhi, rejected the stated reason outright. He declared there was no pending criminal case against Natarajan and characterised the commission's action as illegal, calling for an immediate reversal of the decision.
On the ground in Bhopal, Congress workers gave the dispute a theatrical dimension by hanging an RSS uniform on the locked gate of the Chief Electoral Officer's office. The act was a deliberate provocation, with the party appearing to draw a symbolic connection between the rejection and the Bharatiya Janata Party's ideological parent organisation.
The Times of India framed the story around the protest action itself, highlighting its symbolic character, while the Hindustan Times focused on the legal and procedural dispute, centring Singhvi's assertion that the evidentiary basis for the rejection simply does not exist.
Rajya Sabha candidacies can be blocked under Indian election law if a candidate faces certain categories of criminal charges. The dispute hinges on whether any such qualifying case is actually registered against Natarajan — a factual question the Congress says the commission got wrong.
The standoff raises broader questions about the integrity of the nomination scrutiny process for upper-house elections, with Congress framing the episode as an example of electoral bodies being influenced by the ruling establishment — a charge the commission and the BJP have not formally responded to in the available reporting.
What happens next depends on whether the Election Commission reviews or upholds its decision following the Congress delegation's meeting in Delhi, and whether Natarajan's candidacy can be reinstated before the relevant deadline. The party has signalled it will continue to push back through both institutional and public pressure.