The Congress on Wednesday formally told the Election Commission that the returning officer had wrongly rejected the nomination of party leader Meenakshi Natarajan for the Rajya Sabha elections on the basis of objections filed by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Natarajan was the Congress’ sole candidate for the June 18 Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh. Her nomination was rejected on Tuesday after the BJP claimed that she had withheld information in her affidavit about a criminal case against her in Telangana.

The returning officer had sought Natarajan’s response and given her until 6 pm on Tuesday to present her case. After considering her explanation, the officer rejected her nomination. However, Natarajan alleged that the Congress’ advocates “were not heard”.

On Wednesday, a delegation of Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Jairam Ramesh and Randeep Surjewala told reporters that they had made a detailed representation to the poll panel.

Singhvi said that the returning officer for the polls had passed a wrong order.

He said that Section 33A of the 1951 Representation of the People Act requires candidates to disclose cases filed against them that have a punishment of two years or more, and matters in which charges have been framed.

“The process of framing charges is a judicial process,” Singhvi said.

He added that following a private complaint, a magistrate takes cognisance of a matter.

Natarajan had received a notice to appear before the court and explain “why cognisance should not be taken”, Singhvi said.

“So, the notice she received was before any cognisance was taken,” he added. “Without cognisance, no criminal case exists in the eyes of the law.”

The Congress leader said that the returning officer had rejected Natarajan’s nomination without the court having taken cognisance. “There is no criminal case that she could have disclosed,” Singhvi said.

“We hope the EC realises that this will create a very bad, distorted, non-level playing field that strikes at the heart of democracy,” he added.

Singhvi further said that the Election Commission must use its constitutional powers to do “corrective justice” immediately. He added that the poll panel had sufficient time to withdraw the “unlawful order” against Natarajan on Wednesday.

Rajya Sabha polls

The 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly is going to elect three members to the Rajya Sabha on June 18. With the Assembly’s effective strength at 229, a candidate requires 58 first-preference votes to win.

Of these seats, the BJP has 164 MLAs excluding the speaker. While the Congress has 63 MLAs, its ally Bharat Adivasi Party has one.

The BJP has the numbers to win two of the three seats as it needs 116 votes to do so. However, it will be left with 48 votes that are not sufficient to clinch the third seat.

Despite this, the Hindutva party fielded three candidates, raising concerns in the Congress about cross-voting and defections.

On Tuesday, the Congress flew most of its MLAs from Bhopal to Bengaluru, where the party is in power, while keeping a few senior legislators back in Madhya Pradesh, where it is in the Opposition.

Written by Nachiket Deuskar. Edited by Sneha.