Meenakshi Natarajan’s RS nomination rejection wrong: Congress

Senior Congress leaders met with the Election Commission (EC) over the rejection of nomination papers of Meenakshi Natarajan (below), its Rajya Sabha candidate from Madhya Pradesh. Pics/PTI

The Congress on Wednesday took up with the Election Commission the issue of rejection of its Madhya Pradesh candidate Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls, saying the order was "egregious", it was wrong, and it should be set aside immediately.

The June 18 elections for three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh took a dramatic turn on Tuesday when Natarajan's nomination was rejected on charges of concealing information in the affidavit.

A delegation of top party leaders met the Commission and demanded that the decision should be reversed. "This is a subversion of democracy....We still have full faith in constitutional institutions. That is why we are fighting this battle," Natarajan told reporters.

"This is a completely egregious and blatantly unlawful order, and should be set aside immediately, is our request," Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi said. The poll body must exercise its power immediately, said the Congress MP.

The Congress hopes and trusts that the EC will realise that this creates a very bad, distorted and non-level playing field that strikes at the heart of democracy.

A violation of that strikes further at the heart of the basic structure of the Constitution. Therefore, we have requested for an immediate decision, Singhvi said.

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