Supreme Court rejects Meenakshi Natarajan's plea against RS nomination rejection

In a setback to Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan, the Supreme Court on Friday rejected her plea challenging the rejection of her nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha election from Madhya Pradesh.

A bench comprising Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S Chandurkar, however, said it has not observed anything on the merits of the case.

During the hearing, the top court said that once a candidate's nomination is rejected by the returning officer, the only remedy is to approach the Election Commission.

The court also asked Natarajan's counsel to show any judgement passed by it where it has interfered in such cases.

Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Natarajan, submitted that a candidate is supposed to disclose a criminal case which provides for a minimum sentence of two years and, in the present matter, only summons were issued.

He said the nomination paper for the Rajya Sabha poll in Madhya Pradesh was wrongly rejected by the returning officer citing alleged non-disclosure of a criminal case under the Representation of People Act.

An order by the Rajya Sabha Election Returning Officer Arvind Sharma stated that it was found after examining available documents that Natarajan submitted an incomplete affidavit, omitting a court complaint in Form 26 submitted with her nomination.

According to a Madhya Pradesh assembly official, the ruling BJP candidate, Mahesh Kewat, filed a complaint with the returning officer alleging that Natarajan had not mentioned in her affidavit a case registered against her in Telangana.

Congress fumes over rejection
Congress has dubbed the rejection of Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination and the election of three BJP nominees as "theft", "hijacking" of the democratic process and "betrayal" of the people. The party had nominated Natarajan as its sole candidate for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh.

The returning officer on Thursday declared three BJP candidates, Tarun Chugh, Rajneesh Agarwal and Mahesh Kewat, were elected unopposed from the state.

Senior Congress leader Digvijaya Singh asked why the Supreme Court scheduled a hearing on Friday when it knew the BJP candidates could be declared elected and Natarajan's petition would become infructuous. "This is all collusion and theft. I have never seen a Gandhian like Meenakshi Natarajan in politics. She was removed from the electoral fray as if she had committed a crime. What a joke!" Singh said.

Another senior party leader and former CM Kamal Nath said that issuing certificates of election to the three BJP Rajya Sabha candidates in Madhya Pradesh is betrayal of the people of the state and democracy.

Voting is scheduled for the three Rajya Sabha seats from MP on June 18. They fell vacant due to the expiry of the terms of BJP's George Kurien, Sumer Singh Solanki and Congress’ Digvijaya Singh. The BJP has 164 MLAs in the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly, which is sufficient to win two seats comfortably.

The Congress had a strong claim to the third seat based on its numerical strength. In this Rajya Sabha election, a candidate needed 58 votes to win. Therefore, the victory of the BJP's third candidate depended on additional votes, cross-voting, or opposition members abstaining.

All but three of the 27 seats for Rajya Sabha were decided with NDA candidates declared elected unopposed in 19 and Congress in the remaining five.

Nominations from other states
Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC secretary Mansoor Ali Khan and Pawan Khera - and BJP's M Nagaraja were declared elected "unanimously" to the Rajya Sabha from Karnataka on Thursday.

Elections for two seats in Jharkhand, where a keen contest is on the cards, and one seat in Mizoram will be held on June 18. The scrutiny of nominations for elections to 24 Rajya Sabha seats in 10 states besides bye-elections to one seat each in Maharashtra, Odisha and Tamil Nadu was on Thursday.

In Jharkhand, elections for the two Rajya Sabha seats would be held where three candidates - JMM's Baidyanath Ram, Congress nominee Pranav Jha and Independent Parimal Nathwani, a director at Reliance Industries who has the support of the BJP, are in the fray. In Gujarat, all four candidates of the ruling BJP—Rajubhai Shukla, Mansinh Parmar, Mukeshbhai Rathwa and Jitendra Kanjariya were elected unopposed. Main Opposition Congress did not field its candidate.

All four NDA candidates from Andhra Pradesh, three from TDP and one from Jana Sena, were elected unopposed. While in Rajasthan, all three candidates, BJP's Satish Poonia and Alka Gurjar, and Congress's Neeraj Dangi - were elected unopposed. For the bye-election for lone Rajya Sabha seat in Maharashtra vacated by Sunetra Pawar, NCP's Rajendra Jain was elected unopposed. In Odisha, BJP candidate Debashish Samantaray was elected unopposed to the Rajya Sabha. Samantaray. Congress nominee Praveen Chakravarthy was declared elected unopposed from Tamil Nadu. He is backed by the ruling TVK.

In the northeast, National People's Party (NPP) national vice president James K Sangma elected unopposed to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from Meghalaya. James Sangma, the brother of Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, was declared elected after no other candidate remained in the fray. In Manipur, BJP state chief Adhikarimayum Sharda Devi was elected unopposed to Rajya Sabha. Senior BJP leader Tai Tagak from Arunachal Pradesh was declared elected unopposed to the lone Rajya Sabha seat from the state. In Mizoram, ruling Zoram People's Movement (ZPM) spokesperson K Laltluangkima and main opposition Mizo National Front's (MNF) Zothansangi Hmar, an advocate and a writer, are in the fray for the lone seat. The BJP, which has two members in the 40-member Mizoram assembly, and the Congress having only one legislator, did not field their candidates.