After ‘vote chori’ and ‘sarkar chori’, Rahul alleges BJP’s ‘seat chori’ in Rajya Sabha polls

Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi accused the BJP and Election Commission of "seat chori" after Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan's Rajya Sabha nomination was rejected in Madhya Pradesh. The BJP dismissed the charge, blaming Congress for procedural lapses

New Delhi: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday alleged that after “vote chori” and “sarkar chori”, the BJP was involved in “seat chori” in the Rajya Sabha elections, and the ruling party’s “jugalbandi” with the Election Commission finished the contest even before it started.

Gandhi’s attack came after the Election Commission (EC) rejected the nomination of Meenakshi Natarajan, the Congress Rajya Sabha candidate in Madhya Pradesh. “After ‘vote chori’ and ‘sarkar chori’, the BJP-EC jugalbandi has finished the contest before it has even begun with ‘seat chori’,” Gandhi said in a post on X.

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“Look at what happened in the Rajya Sabha elections. Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan ji submitted every document. No pending cases. The EC cancelled her nomination on BJP’s frivolous objection,” he said.

Citing the case of Parimal Nathwani, the BJP-backed Independent Rajya Sabha nominee in Jharkhand, Gandhi said he got his own name wrong on the form and skipped multiple mandatory disclosures, “yet the EC gave him an extension to fix everything”. “Same Election Commission. Two candidates. One was disqualified without even a hearing. The other was rewarded despite not following the rules,” the leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha alleged.

“When the Congress sought a meeting, the EC first tried to evade us. When we finally met, they did not say one word. Expect to see much more of this – because for the BJP, it is far easier to fix the election than to win it,” Gandhi said.

The Congress first petitioned the EC, and after failing to get any respite, it moved the Supreme Court, which will hear the petition on Friday.

Hitting back, BJP leader Pradeep Bhandari said the Congress should first identify the “insider” within the party who is working against it.

“It was the Congress Party itself that allegedly caused its candidate, Meenakshi Natarajan, to submit her nomination papers incorrectly. Information was deliberately withheld. Today, the Congress Party is trying to play the victim card.

“The party has several prominent lawyers, and they are aware of a 2013 judgment by a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India headed by Justice P. Sathasivam, which clearly states that if information is intentionally withheld, even in relation to a pending criminal case, it amounts to a substantial defect. On that basis, a nomination can be cancelled.”

Bhandari said the important point is that Telangana is also a Congress-ruled state and the party should reflect on who leaked this information from Telangana in the first place.