In a major setback to the Congress party, the Returning officer has rejected Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination form on grounds of hiding important information. The cancellation of Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination has altered the dynamics of the Rajya Sabha election in the State. The rejection was a result of an objection raised by the BJP on Tuesday. While the BJP has hailed this as a victory of the legal process. Political activity remained high throughout the day in the State capital. There were major happenings within the Assembly complex where the scrutiny of Congress candidate’s nomination form was going on and at the airport also. Till evening, there was heightened political tension outside the Returning Officer’s chamber as the scrutiny of Congress’ Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination form was going on and leaders from both the parties Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party were present in large numbers. Issue escalated with the argument by the BJP leaders that information regarding a criminal matter pertaining to Telangana was not mentioned in the form. The BJP had lodged a formal objection against Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination. The party alleged that the candidate had failed to disclose a pending case in her affidavit and that there were discrepancies regarding other information in the nomination documents. At some places in the form, necessary official seal by the party office-bearers were also missing. After the cancellation of Meenkashi Natarajan’s nomination by the Returning Officer, the flight carrying Congress MLAs towards southern state returned to the Bhopal airport. It has fuelled the possibility of winning of BJP’s third candidate for the Rajya Sabha from the State. On the other side, the Indian National Congress leaders told to ‘The Hitavada’ that it will approach the Supreme Court in this matter. Notably, after a high voltage drama at airport, Congress had flown around 48 MLAs from Madhya Pradesh to Karnataka amid fears of cross voting in the Rajya Sabha elections to be held on June 18.

 

They had to wait for around three hours to get permission to take off the plane. Congress leaders were alleging that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was attempting to contact and poach its MLAs in an attempt to alter the electoral equations. The MLAs first gathered at Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar’s residence and then left for the airport in their own vehicles. After reaching airport, their leaders found that instead of a large aircraft capable of carrying around 180 people a smaller plane with a capacity of nearly 75 passengers arrived. MLAs waiting at the airport, families unsure whether they would fly together, and party managers hurriedly working out a two-batch evacuation plan. Polling for three Rajya Sabha seats in the State will be held on June 18 amid allegations of attempts of horse-trading by rival parties. Although party was claiming it had full faith in its MLAs, but does not trust the BJP’s politics of poaching. Of the three Rajya Sabha seats, the BJP is comfortably positioned to win two, while the Congress appears numerically stronger for the third. After the announcement of third candidate Mahesh Kewat by the BJP, concerns were raised among Congress party leaders. The Congress has 64 MLAs in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly, but one MLA is ineligible to vote following a Supreme Court order. Nirmala Sapre from Sagar whose loyalty to the grand old party is under scanner. Even if the BJP gets support of Sapre, the party still needs more votes (58 first preference votes) to win third seat.

 

Congress leaders alleged that BJP was attempting to create divisions within the party and engineer cross-voting in the Rajya Sabha election like it has been happened in other states. However, the Congress strongly contested BJP’s objection. LoP Singhar said that Natarajan does not face any criminal case and therefore had no requirement to disclose the matter cited by the BJP. The matter, BJP is talking relates only to a court notice and not to a formally registered criminal case.