Congress protests cancellation of Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination

Congress leaders staged a protest in New Delhi over the cancellation of Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination, alleging an assault on democratic principles. Jitu Patwari said the party was prepared for arrest, while leaders accused the BJP of political interference.

New Delhi: As the Congress staged a protest here over the cancellation of party leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination from Madhya Pradesh, its state party chief Jitu Patwari said that they were ready to be arrested if not allowed to stage the agitation.

Addressing reporters amid the protests, Patwari said: “If the Election Commission does not listen, if the President does not listen, and if we are not allowed to protest on the streets, then we are prepared to be arrested.”

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“The people of the country should see how the government’s behaviour has turned undemocratic. Is it a crime to undertake a protest march? If they want to arrest us, we are prepared to go to jail,” he added.

Before the agitation, Congress MLA Jaivardhan Singh said: “Earlier there were discussions of ‘vote chori’, but now they have started indulging in ‘seat chori’ even before the (Rajya Sabha) election was held.”

About the BJP claiming to have been provided information about Natarajan by Telangana Congress, he remarked: “The BJP did ‘vote chori’, and ‘seat chori’. We were taught in our childhood never to trust the words of thieves.”

According to Congress MLA Vikrant Bhuria, the cancellation of Meenakshi Natarajan’s Rajya Sabha nomination was a “black day” for democracy.

“It was a black day because there was not even an FIR against her. The BJP talks about 33 per cent reservation for women, yet it did not give even one woman a chance among its three Rajya Sabha candidates. When the Congress gives a woman an opportunity, it uses all its power to stop her,” he told IANS.

Echoing a similar view, Congress leader Kunal Choudhary said: “The manner in which the BJP has murdered the Constitution and democracy in this country is alarming. A conspiracy was hatched to stop a woman with Gandhian ideals.”

“She (Natarajan) is a Gandhian thinker against whom there has never been any case or FIR. Yet, she was stopped on the basis of a notice — that too, a private notice and a private complaint. This is nothing short of the murder of democracy,” he told IANS.