The Telangana case behind the trouble for Meenakshi Natarajan’s RS nomination

Hyderabad, June 10 (IANS) A huge row erupted over Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination for Rajya Sabha in Madhya Pradesh. The focus is on the case allegedly pending in a court in Hyderabad, which was not mentioned in her affidavit.

The legal notice sent to the AICC in-charge for Telangana at the state Congress office, Gandhi Bhavan, last year shows that she was one of the respondents in a private complaint filed by a former Congress leader and a former corporator of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC).

The complaint was filed under section 223 of BNSS in the Court of the 4th Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate at Hyderabad in 2025. Meenakshi Natarajan, listed as the fourth respondent, was directed to appear in the court on September 17, 2025, and file a counter, if any.

Srilatha, who was a corporator elected on the TDP ticket from 2002 to 2007, had filed the petition in court against a Congress leader, Shiva Kumar Reddy, alleging that she faces a threat to her life from him and his supporters.

The complainant named seven Congress leaders, including Meenakshi Natrajan, as respondents on the ground that they were apprised of the ‘harassment’ and ‘threats’ but had failed to act against the said person.

Following the court’s direction on the complaint, an FIR was registered on May 28, 2025.

Sources in Congress say that Natarajan was not named in the first police complaint filed by Srilatha in 2022. The case was then disposed of due to a lack of evidence. Her later private complaints in Hyderabad and Bengaluru, too, were disposed of.

The returning officer in Madhya Pradesh, who rejected Natarajan’s nomination, reportedly acted on a complaint by senior BJP leader and Minister in the Mohan Yadav government, Kailash Vijayvargiya. The complaint contended that a case involving Natarajan is pending before a Telangana court and was not disclosed in her nomination affidavit.

Kailash Vijayvargiya’s remark suggesting that they received the ‘paper’ from a Congress leader in Telangana sparked a row. Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leaders were quick to point fingers at Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy, who also holds the home portfolio.

“Who informed Madhya Pradesh BJP? Is there a role of Home Minister of Telangana?” asked BRS leader Krishank Manne.

The BRS leader claims that Natarajan opposed the Musi River beautification project, the demolitions of houses in Khammam, and deforestation at the University of Hyderabad.

–IANS

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