Meenakshi Natarajan Nomination Row: Congress to Challenge the Verdict in the High Court, Seeking Relief Before June 21
Rajya Sabha election: Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination was rejected. The party will now challenge this decision in the Madhya Pradesh High Court. The party's national leadership is preparing for this. Senior advocates are being consulted. Meenakshi Natarajan is also in Delhi. The election petition may be filed next week. The party is attempting to get relief before June 21, because after that the three unopposed BJP members—Tarun Chug, Rajnish Agarwal, and Mahesh Kewat—will take oath.
No relief from Supreme Court and Election Commission
On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed Meenakshi's petition. Meenakshi Natarajan also received no relief from the Election Commission. According to rules, an election petition must be filed within 45 days of the election announcement, so the party will prepare properly and submit the petition. There are many instances where different High Courts have made major upsets in election petitions; that is why Congress is preparing to go to the High Court. State Congress President Jitu Patwari said they will file the election petition very soon.
Nationwide and local protests by Congress
Meanwhile, most Congress MLAs who went to Delhi for protests have returned to the state. Some will arrive on Sunday. To protest the decision to reject the nomination, different party organizations will hold demonstrations at district headquarters between June 15 and 17. On June 15, Youth Congress; on June 16, NSUI; and on June 17, Mahila Congress will protest.
All three elected members will be made parties
Senior advocate Sanjay K. Agarwal of Jabalpur High Court says that in Meenakshi Natarajan's case, the only option is an election petition. All three candidates who were elected unopposed must be made parties. Reason: since all were elected unopposed, it cannot be said that Mahesh Kewat was elected in place of Meenakshi Natarajan. Therefore, we cannot say whose election might be void. All three will get an opportunity to present testimony. Since the election did not happen, we cannot even say who got the first preference votes.
Legal timeline and consequences after oath
A petition must be filed within 45 days of the notification. The Rajya Sabha election petition is filed in the High Court. An attempt is made to dispose of the election petition within six months, but in many cases delays occur due to the court's workload. Even after taking oath, if the election is annulled, everything ends.
Attack on constitutional values and questions on legal status
Regarding the rejection of Meenakshi's nomination, Congress state general secretary Ravi Joshi said that the rejection of Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination is not just injustice to a candidate, but a serious attack on the democratic process, fair elections, and constitutional values. The Congress leadership is consistently raising the issue of whether the electoral process will be conducted according to law or based on political pressures.
District Congress Committee Bhopal Rural in-charge Manoj Rajani said that in the private complaint mentioned, Meenakshi Natarajan ji has been shown not as an accused but as a respondent. Both have different legal statuses, and interpreting them equally raises several serious legal questions.
