Lok Sabha LoP Rahul Gandhi. File
| Photo Credit: ANI

Amit Chavda. File photo: X/@AmitChavdaINC

A dramatic day of political developments in Madhya Pradesh’s capital Bhopal, that began with several Congress MLAs heading to the airport to leave for Bengaluru, ended with the nomination of Meenakshi Natarajan, the party candidate for one of three Rajya Sabha seats from the State, being rejected during scrutiny.

This prompted top Congress leaders, led by its national general secretary K.C. Venugopal, to stage a sit-in outside the Election Commission of India (ECI)’s office in New Delhi.  

The rejection came at a time when a batch of Congress MLAs was en route to Bengaluru amid fears of cross- voting in the polls, prompting the State leaders to ask them to return to Bhopal. 

Ms. Natarajan accused the BJP of having “moved from vote theft to seat theft”.

After Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination rejection, Congress delegation turns away by EC

“It started when the BJP fielded a third candidate despite not having the adequate number of members, and we started to understand the kind of politics it is practising with democracy and the Constitution. What was limited to vote theft through SIR (Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls) and other methods has today reached (the stage of) seat theft,” she said, at a press conference late on Tuesday with senior State party leaders. 

Ms. Natarajan’s nomination was rejected by Assembly Secretary Arvind Sharma, who is also the Returning Officer for the election, based on an objection raised by BJP candidate for the third seat Mahesh Kewat and State party general secretary Rahul Kothari. They alleged that Ms. Natarajan had “hidden” details of a case lodged against her in Telangana’s Hyderabad. 

The objection led to chaotic scenes at the Assembly Secretariat in Bhopal, with dozens of Congress and BJP workers coming face to face and engaging in arguments. 

Several senior State BJP leaders and MLAs, including Cabinet Ministers Rakesh Singh and Kailash Vijayvargiya, as well as Mr. Kewat remained in the Assembly Secretariat during the proceedings and celebrated after the Returning Officer ruled against Ms. Natarajan. 

Mr. Singh said, “She had deliberately hidden this case in the information provided by her. The form was incomplete. She had given wrong details. On all those issues, a proper opportunity was given, and both sides put forth their arguments. But since there were serious errors in her form, and the case lodged in Telangana had been hidden deliberately, the Returning Officer rejected her form.”

The case pertains to a private complaint against various individuals, including Ms. Natarajan, under BNS Sections 356, 351(2), 61, 45, 46, and 79. The Congress, however, has maintained that this was not a criminal case and only a notice had been issued to Ms. Natarajan to which she had responded. 

Congress Rajya Sabha MP and senior lawyer Vivek Tankha said on X, “Confusion is being spread regarding Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination. No criminal case has been registered. Only a notice has been received stating why proceedings for ₹10 crore compensation should not be initiated against her and other people. Meenakshi ji’s lawyer has responded to this notice. No FIR has been filed.”

Ms. Natarajan alleged that the BJP challenged her nomination “in the guise of a legal notice” after it realised that the Congress MLAs were united. 

“When they felt this was a united house, then in the guise of a legal notice, which was not even taken into cognisance, they challenged the election petition. Our lawyers presented the arguments, but they were not even properly heard or considered, and the decision was delivered. Their intention has become clear,” she said.

“The question is whether the federal structure of India and the democracy will survive or not. Will attempts to bring a one-party system and dictatorship here be destroyed or not? We will challenge this before every democratic forum,” she added.

Late in the evening, a Congress delegation, comprising Mr. Venugopal, Sachin Pilot and Bhupesh Baghel, arrived outside the ECI’s office but were not allowed in. 

“This is a basic matter of democracy. We will sit here until they allow us to go inside. We are very responsible people. Former Chief Ministers, Deputy Chief Ministers and MPs are here,” Mr. Venugopal told reporters. 

The ECI has scheduled a meeting with the party’s delegation at noon on Wednesday. 

Later in the evening, Chief Minister Mohan Yadav alleged that Congress leaders had hidden the information about the case involving Ms. Natarajan “as part of a conspiracy”.

“This matter was in their knowledge. When the Returning Officer put forth the information in front of them during the hearing today, they accepted it. This means they had deliberately kept the Returning Officer in the dark. The decision has come on that basis. I welcome the process of scrutiny,” Mr. Yadav said, while alleging that the Congress feared defeat.

He said that raising the objection was part of the democratic process. 

Earlier in the day, more than 45 Congress MLAs gathered at the residence of Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar before proceeding to Bhopal airport to board a special flight to Bengaluru. However, they had to wait for more than four hours before the first plane took off with one batch of MLAs and their family members. They alleged that the airport authorities and the air traffic control officials were not giving the take off permission. 

Several Opposition legislators also alleged that they were “being approached on behalf of the ruling party with lucrative offers” with MLA Babu Jandel claiming that he had received an “offer of ₹10 crore through a businessman”. 

While the BJP is safely poised to win two of the three Rajya Sabha seats, it has 48 MLA votes to spare after that. Mr. Kewat’s candidature was announced late on Sunday after several rounds of deliberations, as the party is 10 short of the minimum required votes to win one seat. The Congress has 62 valid votes in the Assembly. 

Two BJP candidates who are comfortably positioned to win are national general secretary Tarun Chug and State unit secretary Rajneesh Agrawal. 

Published – June 09, 2026 07:58 pm IST

Communist Party of India (Marxist) State secretary P. Shanmugam. File
| Photo Credit: B. Jothi Ramalingam

New Delhi:

Elections to 12 vacant Rajya Sabha seats in nine states will be held on September 3, the Election Commission said on Wednesday.

Ten Rajya Sabha seats fell vacant as the sitting members, including Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Sarbananda Sonowal and Jyotiraditya Scindia, were elected to the Lok Sabha.

Bypolls are also being held for two seats in Telangana and Odisha.

K Keshava Rao from Telangana resigned recently from the House after quitting the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) to join the Congress while Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Mamata Mohanta resigned from her Rajya Sabha seat and primary membership of the party.

Besides Goyal, Sonowal and Scindia, the other Rajya Sabha members who won the parliamentary polls and moved to the Lok Sabha are Kamakhya Prasad Tasa (BJP), Misha Bharti (RJD), Vivek Thakur (BJP), Deepender Singh Hooda (Congress), Udayanraje Bhosle (BJP), K C Venugopal (Congress) and Biplab Kumar Deb (BJP).

The notification for the Rajya Sabha elections will be issued on August 14 and the last date for filing of poll papers is August 21, the commission said.

The separate elections for each Rajya Sabha seat will be held on September 3 and the results will be announced the same day. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

Voting for four Rajya Sabha seats in Karnataka is on today amid suspense over potential cross-voting, which drove the Congress to move all its MLAs to a private resort on Monday.

Five candidates are in the Rajya Sabha race, including Ajay Maken, Syed Naseer Hussain, and GC Chandrasekhar from the Congress, Narayansa Bhandage from the BJP, and Kupendra Reddy from JD(S).

The voting began at 9 am and will go on till 4 pm before the counting at 5 pm.

The Congress, which has 134 MLAs, faces a tough challenge from the BJP with 66 MLAs, JD(S) with 19, and four others. The Congress claims the support of two independents and Darshan Puttanaiah from Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha among the ‘others’ and is confident of securing three seats. Interestingly, G Janardhana Reddy, a mining baron and a former BJP minister from Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha, met with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah yesterday

The contest intensified after the BJP-JD(S) alliance fielded its second candidate, Kupendra Reddy, despite having the strength to secure only one out of the four available seats.

Mr Reddy said that his party, as part of the NDA, has not sought any favors from anyone but acknowledged that there could be cross-voting.

“Most probably cross voting will happen. If we threatened someone or asked for votes, they (Congress) should have complained to the Election Commission. We did not ask for votes from anybody,” Mr Reddy said.

HD Kumaraswamy, the JD(S) chief, said that the Congress had been attempting to destabilise his party from the outset, leading them to nominate a candidate to demonstrate strength. He assured that there would be no cross-voting from JD(S).

“Since Day 1, the Congress has been trying to destabilize the JDS. In order to demonstrate our strength, we asked our candidate to file a nomination. There will be no cross-voting from my party,” Mr Kumaraswamy said.

In this Rajya Sabha election in Karnataka, each candidate needs 45 votes to secure victory when only four candidates are in the fray. However, if there are more candidates, preference votes come into play, complicating the electoral dynamics.

The election is triggered by the retirement of Union Minister Rajeev Chandrashekar from the BJP and Congress members GC Chandrashekhar, Syed Naseer Hussain, and L Hanumanthaiah, whose terms expires on April 2. MLAs are using an open ballot system to cast their votes.