The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday won the three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh unopposed after the nomination papers of the Congress party’s lone candidate were rejected two days ago.
Returning Officer Arvind Sharma handed over election certificates to BJP candidates Rajneesh Agrawal, Tarun Chugu and Mahesh Kivat after the deadline for withdrawal expired with no other candidates in the fray.
The withdrawal was made possible after Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination was rejected on Tuesday after BJP leaders, including Kewat, filed an objection, alleging that Natarajan had concealed details of a case pending in a Hyderabad court in her election affidavit.
The returning officer upheld the objection, ruling that she had submitted an incomplete form and failed to disclose the court summons issued in connection with a rape case against a Congress leader in Telangana in 2022.
The RO’s decision to declare the three BJP candidates elected came hours after the Supreme Court agreed to hear Natarajan’s petition challenging the rejection of her nomination papers but refused to stay the ongoing electoral process for the Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh.
“My nomination was rejected despite the lack of approval from the court. How can they do this?” Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi asked a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S Chandorkar to issue an interim order preventing the announcement of the election result.
However, the bench noted that the law laid down by the Supreme Court in Election Commission of India v. Ashok Kumar (2000) was clear that courts should ordinarily refrain from interfering once the electoral process has begun.
Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly, Umang Sengar, accused Election Commission officers of acting as a “rubber stamp” for the BJP.
“If you can validate the BJP candidate in Jharkhand, why did you not take such a decision in Meenakshi Natarajan’s case? This shows that the Election Commission is acting as a rubber stamp for the BJP. The returning officer has blatantly violated the rules, ignoring the guidelines of the Supreme Court,” Sengar said.
Mahesh Kivat, the third BJP candidate who benefited from the rejection of Natarajan’s nomination papers, credited the BJP’s focus on the grassroots for his elevation. “It can only happen in the BJP that a small worker from Bundelkhand like me becomes a Rajya Sabha MP,” Kivat said.
