BHOPAL, June 9 -- Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination for one of the three Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh was rejected on Tuesday. Her papers were dismissed over allegations of concealing information related to a legal case in her affidavit.

The nomination of Congress candidate was rejected by the Returning Officer during scrutiny on Tuesday, dealing a major setback to the party's bid to secure one of the three seats up for polls.

The rejection followed objections raised by BJP nominee Mahesh Kewat, who alleged that Natarajan had not disclosed proceedings related to a case in Telangana in her nomination papers. The decision was taken after hearing both sides during the scrutiny process.

At a press conference later in the evening, Natarajan called it the BJP's attempt to manipulate the election.

"It all began when the ruling BJP fielded a third candidate despite lacking the requisite numerical strength. It became evident that they were engaging in politics designed to trample upon the Constitution and democracy," she said.

Natarajan's nomination was rejected during scrutiny and the Congress cannot field another candidate now since the last date of filing nominations was June 8. The BJP's third candidate is Mahesh Kewat. The complaint was filed by senior BJP leader and Minister in the Mohan Yadav government, Kailash Vijayvargiya. The complaint contended that a case involving Natarajan is pending before a Telangana court and was not disclosed in her nomination affidavit.

Natarajan alleged that the BJP is "muzzling democracy and the Constitution," saying that what was earlier limited to "vote theft" has now become "seat theft."

She said, "When the number of members was not adequate, and the BJP fielded third candidate, it all started from there, and we started to understand that they are doing the politics of muzzling the democracy, constitution."

After the poll body's decision which came as a shock to the Congress, the party broke out in vehement protests.

"The allegation of any error or non-disclosure in her nomination is complete humbug and a desperate attempt to snatch a seat from the INC... They stooped so low as to reject her nomination when they realised that their dirty tricks to compromise our INC MLAs is going to fail. This shows the BJP's hollow commitment to the Constitution and democracy. At every step of the way, they are hell-bent on Vote Chori - one way or another," read a post from Congress general secretary KC Venugopal.

"The BJP is engaged in breaking all norms of political decency to snatch the Congress seat. First, they deliberately denied permission for the flight carrying Congress MLAs to take off for a long time. Second, they maliciously filed an objection against the nomination of Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan. And then, BJP leaders created a ruckus in the assembly premises," former Chief Minister Kamal Nath said in a post.

Congress's Madhya Pradesh in-charge, Harish Chaudhary, declared that no case had been filed against Natarajan and the BJP was bringing up such allegations only to harass her. Natarajan had received a show-cause notice from the court, and it was not necessary to mention it in the affidavit, since information needs to be provided only when a police case is filed, he said.

In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, a Rajya Sabha candidate needs 58 votes to win. The BJP, with around 165 MLAs, can comfortably elect its two nominees -- Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Agarwal -- using 116 votes. That still leaves it with roughly 47 to 49 surplus votes.

The Congress has 65 MLAs, which was enough strength to send Meenakshi Natarajan to the Upper House.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.