Senior BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya on Tuesday dismissed the Congress’ allegations of a “murder of democracy” over the rejection of Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination for the third Rajya Sabha seat from Madhya Pradesh, claiming that Congress leaders from Telangana had supplied the documents that led to the controversy.
The Rajya Sabha election in Madhya Pradesh witnessed a dramatic turn after Natarajan’s nomination was rejected on charges of concealing information in her affidavit. The election for three Rajya Sabha seats is scheduled to be held on June 18.
According to Returning Officer Arvind Sharma’s order, scrutiny of the nomination papers revealed that Natarajan had failed to disclose a court complaint in Telangana in Form 26 submitted along with her nomination, rendering the affidavit incomplete.
The objection was raised by BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat, who alleged that Natarajan had omitted details of a case registered against her in Telangana. Following the rejection of her nomination, Vijayvargiya suggested that the information did not originate from the BJP.
“As for the documents we received, who gave them to us? One can understand the condition of the Congress. We were receiving documents related to Telangana, a state where Congress is in power. We had no information ourselves; it must have come from Congress members,” Vijayvargiya told reporters.
Taking a swipe at the Congress over reports that it plans to move its Madhya Pradesh MLAs to Karnataka to prevent cross-voting, the BJP leader said such measures would not affect the outcome.
“Whether they take MLAs to Bengaluru or even to London, we would have won the election anyway because the people of the country have faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he remarked.
The Congress has strongly opposed the Returning Officer’s decision, describing it as not merely “vote theft” but “seat theft” and a “murder of democracy.” The party has announced its intention to challenge the rejection in court.
Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Vivek Tankha suggested that the matter should be taken directly to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, the party staged protests outside the Election Commission office in Bhopal and at the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi.
Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari announced that party MLAs and leaders would observe a hunger strike across the state on Wednesday in protest against the decision.
Natarajan alleged that despite lacking the numerical strength to secure a third seat, the BJP fielded a third candidate in a bid to undermine democratic processes and constitutional values.
Of the three Rajya Sabha seats falling vacant in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP was comfortably placed to win two, while the Congress held a numerical advantage for the third seat. The BJP has fielded Tarun Chugh, Rajneesh Agarwal and Mahesh Kewat as its candidates.
In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the effective strength currently stands at 229, requiring a candidate to secure 58 first-preference votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat.
