BHOPAL/The BJP on Thursday won all three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh unopposed after Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination was rejected over the alleged non-disclosure of a pending court matter in her election affidavit.
Returning Officer Arvind Sharma, Principal Secretary of the MP Assembly, declared BJP candidates Tarun Chugh, Rajneesh Agrawal and Mahesh Kewat elected after no other candidates remained in the fray.
Chief Minister Mohan Yadav congratulated the newly elected members. He expressed confidence that the trio would effectively raise issues related to public welfare, people’s aspirations and the state’s development in the Upper House.
Meanwhile, Natarajan has moved the Supreme Court challenging the rejection of her nomination. The apex court agreed to hear her plea on Friday but declined to stay the election process. The Congress alleged that election officials acted in a partisan manner and violated established guidelines while rejecting its candidate’s nomination.
During the hearing, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for the Congress, sought an urgent hearing, arguing that the deadline for withdrawal of nominations was 3 pm on the same day.
Following their election, Chugh, Agrawal and Kewat visited the Assembly complex along with BJP state media in-charge Ashish Agrawal and collected their certificates from the Returning Officer. They later met state BJP president Hemant Khandelwal.
Natarajan’s nomination was rejected on June 9 after the returning officer held that she had failed to disclose details of a court complaint pending against her in Telangana in Form 26 submitted with her nomination papers. The complaint regarding the alleged omission was filed by BJP candidate Kewat. Voting for the polls had been scheduled for June 18.