All three Rajya Sabha candidates of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh were on Thursday handed over the certificates of selection unopposed.
File Photo: IANS
All three Rajya Sabha candidates of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Madhya Pradesh were on Thursday handed over the certificates of selection unopposed.
Meanwhile, the Opposition Congress moved the Supreme Court with an appeal against the rejection of nomination of its candidate Meenakshi Natarajan. The apex court would hear the matter on Friday.
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Returning Officer Arvind Sharma handed over the election certificates to BJP candidate Tarun Chugh, Rajneesh Agrawal, and Mahesh Kewat at around 3.30 pm in the State Assembly.
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Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Agrawal were optimistic of winning unopposed, as the Congress did not field any candidates on these two seats, as the BJP has sufficient number of MLAs to coast through.
The ruling party has 164 MLAs in the 230-member Assembly. The number of votes required to win each seat is 58.
On the other hand, the BJP was falling short of around 10 votes for the third seat.
The Congress has 64 MLAs, of whom 62 are eligible to vote. The Congress fielded Meenakshi Natarajan on the third seat and she was looking comfortable to win.
The BJP then sprung a surprise and fielded Mahesh Kewat on this third seat, opening the way for a contest on the seat and making Natarajan’s path difficult.
To make things worse for the Congress, the Returning Officer rejected Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination on Tuesday evening after upholding the BJP’s objection on the grounds that Natarajan did not provide information in her affidavit about a court case against her at Hyderabad in Telangana state.
Following that, BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat’s entry to the Rajya Sabha became certain too.
The Congress appealed in the EC against the rejection of Natarajan’s form. The EC did not take any decision on the issue.
Consequently, the Congress approached the Supreme Court.
It is presently unclear what would happen if the Supreme Court accepts the Congress’ appeal, and rules in favour of Meenakshi Natarajan.
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