Meenakshi Natarajan denies conspiracy within Congress over her RS nomination

Hyderabad, June 21 (IANS) AICC in-charge for Telangana, Meenakshi Natarajan, dismissed allegations that there was a conspiracy within the Congress party which resulted in her nomination for Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh getting rejected.

She accused the BJP of spreading misleading narratives to divert public attention from what she called its conspiracy to subvert democracy.

Addressing a press conference at the party’s Telangana headquarters, Gandhi Bhavan, on Sunday, she said that there is no need for anyone in the Congress party to indulge in conspiracies over her nomination. She termed the conspiracy theories as ‘bogus’ and ‘baseless’.

She alleged that the BJP hatched a conspiracy along with the Returning Officers and claimed that this was evident ever since the BJP filed nomination for the third Rajya Sabha seat, despite having 10 MLAs short of the required strength of 58, while Congress had 61 MLAs.

Meenakshi Natarajan said since the nomination form has no column for furnishing information about a pending legal notice, there was no requirement to do so.

She said when an objection was raised, the Returning Officer inquired from her if any legal notice was pending. “I told him that yes, a legal notice is pending, and as a law-abiding citizen, I have responded to them,” she said, adding that the legal notice pertains to a matter pending before her term as AICC observer began in 2025.

The Congress leader rubbished the claims by some BJP leaders from Madhya Pradesh that a Congress leader in Telangana passed on the information about the pending legal notice against her.

“There is no conspiracy. There is no reason for anyone in the party to plot against me. The conspiracy theory is floated by the BJP to divert us and not lead us towards the conspiracy that they are planning against the democratic values of this country,” she said.

“Even if there is some conspiracy, what made the two Returning Officers reject the nomination on a frivolous basis?” she asked and alleged that there is a conspiracy in the country to subvert democracy.

Alleging that the Election Commission has compromised, she said this was not an issue of just one seat. “They resorted to cross-voting in Haryana to steal a seat. They committed theft of a seat in Jharkhand,” he said.

Natarajan claimed that rumours surrounding her nomination rejection were being circulated by the BJP a day before the nomination process itself.

She also denied reports that any Congress MP from Telangana would resign from the Rajya Sabha to send her to the upper House of Parliament. “No one in Telangana is resigning a Rajya Sabha seat for me. These reports are completely baseless,” she said.

Natarajan clarified that her active political role would continue to remain in Madhya Pradesh.

–IANS

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