New Delhi [India], June 9 (ANI): Several Congress leaders, including Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, on Tuesday slammed the BJP over the rejection of nomination papers of party candidate Meenakshi Natarajan for the Rajya Sabha polls in Madhya Pradesh.
Reddy alleged that BJP is resorting to “seat chori” after “vote chori and SIR”.
He said rejection of Natarajan’s candidature amounts to an assault on democracy.
“I condemn the conspiracy by the BJP in Madhya Pradesh which resulted in the rejection of Ms Meenakshi Natarajanji’s Rajya Sabha nomination. After #VoteChori and #SIR , they are now resorting to Seat Chori,” he said in a post on X.
“This is an assault on democracy. People’s voices are being stifled. This is a dark day for Indian democracy and needs to be condemned by all citizens. We will all fight for justice,” he added.
A Congress delegation went to meet the Election Commission in the evening and party leaders said that they could not meet officials.
The Election Commission later said it has invited a delegation of Congress to meet with the Commission on June 10.
Congress on Tuesday slammed the BJP after nomination papers of Meenakshi Natarajan, the party’s candidate for Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, were rejected with a party delegation also going to meet the Election Commission over the issue.
Party leader Sachin Pilot also slammed the BJP over the rejection of nomination papers.
Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that rejecting Meenakshi Natarajani’s “nomination to the Rajya Sabha is a blatant attempt by the BJP to destroy the democratic process in a clandestine manner”.
“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,” he said in a post on X.
“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. We will not take this daylight robbery of democracy lying down, and will fight this legally as well as politically on the streets tooth-and-nail,” he added.
Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who was among party leaders who reached Election Commission said that they wanted to submit a petition to Election Commission.
He accused the poll body of “deliberating stopping” the party delegation and said he had never seen something like this.
“We have come here to submit a petition. Our candidate has been disqualified. We just want to submit our petition to the Election Commission…Why can’t I sit in the waiting room? I have been a Member of Parliament for over 35 years. I have been waiting here for over 10 minutes. You are deliberately stopping us. I have never seen anything like this,” he said.
The polling for Rajya Sabha biennial elections is slated to take place on June 18. (ANI)
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