A fresh political controversy unfolded in Madhya Pradesh after Congress's Rajya Sabha candidate Meenakshi Natarajan raised a storm over her candidature being rejected. However, a BJP minister has now alleged a big rift within the Congress, claiming that the papers pointing to Natarajan's errors came from Telangana.
Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya said, 'Afterall, who gave us the papers? They came from Telangana, where their (Congress's) government is in power. It must have been Congress people themselves who gave us the information.'
Natarajan was the sole Congress candidate for Rajya Sabha in Madhya Pradesh. The cancellation of her nomination by the EC means that all three BJP candidates from the state go through to the Rajya Sabha.
Natarajan had accused the BJP of attempting to 'trample the Constitution and democracy' after her nomination was rejected. Senior Congress leaders, including KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, and Sachin Pilot staged a dharna protest outside the Election Commission's office in Delhi, and a similar agitation was seen outside the poll panel's office in Bhopal.
The BJP celebrated Natarajan's rejection of Rajya Sabha nomination and claimed that errors in her papers led to the move, while the Congress candidate claimed that the BJP fielded a third candidate for Rajya Sabha despite lacking the requisite numerical strength in order to 'manipulate' the polls.
The Election Commission (EC) is expected to meet a Congress delegation on Wednesday amid an escalating controversy.
