A delegation from the Congress party approached the Election Commission to seek the reversal of Meenakshi Natarajan's rejected Rajya Sabha nomination [1].
The dispute centers on the legality of candidate eligibility in Madhya Pradesh, where the party argues that administrative errors should not disqualify a candidate from running for office.
The delegation included senior leaders K.C. Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, along with Natarajan [1, 2]. The group met at the Election Commission headquarters in New Delhi to challenge the decision made by the Returning Officer in Madhya Pradesh [2, 3].
Congress said the rejection of the nomination was unlawful and perverse [3, 4]. The party said the Returning Officer's order was egregious and lacked a legal basis [4].
According to the party, the rejection stemmed from an alleged omission in an affidavit [3, 4]. Congress said that no criminal case is currently pending against Natarajan, which they said renders the disqualification invalid [3, 4].
The party is requesting that the Election Commission intervene to overturn the decision and allow the nomination to proceed [1, 3].
“Congress described the rejection of the nomination as blatantly unlawful and perverse.”
This challenge highlights the tension between strict affidavit compliance and the substantive eligibility of candidates. If the Election Commission rules in favor of the Congress party, it may set a precedent regarding how minor clerical omissions in nomination papers are handled by Returning Officers in state elections.
