Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan, one of the candidates for the upcoming elections to three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, faced a setback as the returning officer rejected her nomination on Tuesday.
This came after her election rival, BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat, who is contesting for the third Rajya Sabha seat, filed a complaint with the returning officer alleging that Natarajan had deliberately concealed information relating to a case against her in Telangana.
The lawyer representing Kewat, Sanket Gupta, said there was a criminal case pending against Natarajan which was not mentioned in her affidavit, on the basis of which her nomination was cancelled, news agency PTI reported.
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Who is Meenakshi Natarajan?
Natarajan is a former Member of Parliament (MP), who represented Mandsaur constituency in Madhya Pradesh from 2009 to 2014, which was her only term in the House.
Natarajan keeps a very low profile and is considered a close aide of former party president and current Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, since his formal entry into the Congress in 2004.
Natarajan’s entry into the highest echelons of the Congress Party is closely linked to Rahul Gandhi’s official debut in the party in the late 2000s. When Rahul Gandhi was appointed general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in late 2007, he had a specific mandate to revamp the National Students Union of India (NSUI) and the Indian Youth Congress (IYC). Natarajan was one of the first leaders he brought into his inner circle to implement this.
In 2008, Rahul Gandhi formally inducted Natarajan into the central party structure by selecting her as AICC secretary to work with him. She was among the group of leaders handpicked by Rahul to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and she did not disappoint, winning a seat that the Congress had lost to the BJP for six consecutive terms.
However, Natarajan was unable to recreate the feat in 2014 and later in 2019, as Mandsaur lost to BJP’s Sudhir Gupta both times. However, she came back into the limelight after she was appointed to the Telangana All India Congress Committee (AICC) in February 2025.
Natarajan alleges ‘theft of seat’, Venugopal urges EC intervention
After canceling her nomination, Natarajan claimed that “it all started” after the BJP fielded a third candidate.
“When the number of members was not enough and the BJP fielded a third candidate, it all started from there, and we started to understand that they are practicing the policy of muzzling democracy and the Constitution,” she said, according to news agency PTI.
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Natarajan accused the BJP of “stealing seats” and claimed that the arguments made by her advocates were not being heard. She added: “What was limited to stealing votes, now became stealing seats… When they felt that this was a united house and not a divided house, then under the guise of a legal notice, which was not taken seriously, they challenged the election petition. The two lawyers presented the arguments, but they were not heard, and the decision came.”
Congress general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal said the party has sought an appointment with the Election Commission. “After 40 minutes, the election commission did not let us go. What is happening in this country?” Venugopal asked. He said the leaders submitted a memorandum to the poll body, but said they should have had a “physical presence to plead” their case. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday evening, Venugopal urged the Election Commission of India to intervene.
“Let’s see if they will allow us tomorrow morning. Otherwise, we will resort to the legal option,” he added.
