Former MP Meenakshi Natarajan, a key face of Rahul Gandhi's Team and Congress' Rajya Sabha nominee, was in for another disappointment on Friday.
This time it was from the Supreme Court.
The top court refused to interfere with the returning officer's order cancelling Congress candidate's nomination over non-disclosure of a criminal case in Telangana.
Once nomination of a candidate is rejected by the returning officer, the top court said, the only remedy is to approach the Election Commission.
A bench of Justices PK Mishra and AS Chandurkar held that the Congress leader's plea challenging the rejection of her nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha polls is not maintanable.
"However erroneous the decision may be, once a nomination is rejected, the remedy ordinarily lies elsewhere. Is there any judgment of this Court where we have interfered at that stage?" the top court asked Abhishek Manu Singhvi, the senior lawyer representing Meenakshi Natarajan.
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This is a prime case where the court should intervene, senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi said.
Singhvi argued that a candidate is supposed to disclose a criminal case which provides for a minimum sentence of two years and, in the present matter, only summons were issued.
He said the nomination paper for the Rajya Sabha poll in Madhya Pradesh was wrongly rejected by the returning officer citing alleged non-disclosure of a criminal case under the Representation of People Act.
Meanwhile, the BJP on Thursday swept the Madhya Pradesh Rajya Sabha election. The party won all three seats unopposed.
"There is no disappointment and no setback," Meenakshi Natarajan told NDTV, shortly after the top court order.
An order by the Rajya Sabha Election Returning Officer Arvind Sharma stated that it was found after examining available documents that Natarajan submitted an incomplete affidavit, omitting a court complaint in Form 26 submitted with her nomination.
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According to a Madhya Pradesh assembly official, the ruling BJP candidate, Mahesh Kewat, filed a complaint with the returning officer alleging that Natarajan had not mentioned in her affidavit a case registered against her in Telangana.
Madhya Pradesh Congress chief Jitu Patwari alleged that the rejection of Meenakshi Natarajan's Rajya Sabha nomination was an unprecedented development in Indian politics and raised concerns about the state of democracy in the country.
"The first case, the first such incident in Indian politics where a Rajya Sabha nomination has been cancelled--this is currently a subject of discussion in the country. There is a deep-seated feeling in the minds of the common public: will democracy survive in this country, or is the nation heading towards autocracy and dictatorship? This is a significant event that reflects that entire line of thought," Patwari said at a press conference.
