Meenakshi Natarajan: The Rahul Gandhi loyalist whose Rajya Sabha nomination was rejected

Meenakshi Natarajan, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's OG team member, is at the centre of the Rajya Sabha nomination row. On Tuesday (June 9), Natarajan's nomination, who is one of the Congress candidates for the Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, was rejected by the returning officer.

Natarajan is accused of deliberately hiding information related to a legal case filed against her in Telangana. An MP Assembly official told news agency PTI, "Natarajan's nomination has been rejected by the Returning Officer on the grounds of hiding information about a case."

However, the leader has reportedly refuted any such claim against her and accused the BJP of doing "seat chori" (seat theft).

"BJP is muzzling democracy and the Constitution," she alleged, adding that what was earlier limited to “vote theft” has now become “seat theft.”

“When the number of members was not adequate, and the BJP fielded a third candidate, it all started from there, and we started to understand that they are doing the politics of muzzling the democracy and the constitution.”

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“What was limited to vote theft has now become seat theft... When they felt this was a united house and not the divided house, then in guise of legal notice, which was not taken cognisance, they challenged the election petition, our both the advocated presented the arguments, those were not heard, and the decision came," Natarajan said.

Calling it a serious situation in the country, she further stated that it's not about a candidacy and that her party will challenge this. The Election Commission has given an appointment to a Congress delegation for a meeting today (June 10).

We take a look.

Who is Meenakshi Natarajan?

Natarajan was born in Nagda, Ratlam district, Madhya Pradesh.

She is a former Member of Parliament (MP) and has represented the Mandsaur constituency in Madhya Pradesh from 2009 to 2014. Since entering Congress in 2004, she has been considered one of the very close aides of the Congress leader of opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi. Natarajan keeps a low profile.

In 2007, when Gandhi was appointed as a General Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC), he was tasked to revamp the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) and the Indian Youth Congress (IYC). To carry that out, his first pick was Natarajan.

In 2008, she was formally inducted into the central party structure by Gandhi. He selected Natarajan as an AICC secretary to work along with him.

Gandhi handpicked her among the group of leaders to contest the Lok Sabha election from Mandsaur in 2009. Natarajan didn’t disappoint Congress and routed BJP veteran Laxminarayan Pandey, who won the seat a total of eight times, the Indian Express reported.

However, during the Modi wave in 2014, she lost by a massive 3.03 lakh votes to the BJP’s Sudhir Gupta. Though Natarajan tried to win again in Mandsaur, she lost by a margin of 3.76 lakh votes.

In February, 2025, she was appointed as the AICC Telangana in charge.

Why was Natarajan's RS nomination rejected?

BJP candidate Mahesh Kevat, who is contesting the third Rajya Sabha seat, has lodged a complaint before the Returning Officer alleging that Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan deliberately concealed details of a criminal case pending against her in Telangana.

Kevat's lawyer, Sanket Gupta, told reporters that the case is currently in a Telangana court; however, it has not been disclosed in the nomination affidavit of Gandhi's close aide.

According to him, the Returning Officer therefore rejected Natarajan's nomination. Gupta further alleged it was an intentional act, citing Supreme Court guidelines requiring complete disclosure of such information in election affidavits.

He claimed that an objection against Natarajan had already been filed on this ground by Kevat and that several other deficiencies had emerged in her nomination papers, according to PTI.

What happened after rejection?

Around 8 pm on Tuesday (June 9), the Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Sachin Pilot visited the EC office to submit an application against the rejection of Natarajan's nomination for the Rajya Sabha polls.

However, EC gave a Congress delegation an appointment to meet at 12 pm today (June 10). In a letter addressed to the Congress president, the EC stated that it had accepted the party’s request for an appointment and that the interaction would take place at 12 noon.

Congress leaders erupted over the rejection of the nomination. Party's general secretary KC Venugopal called it a “blatant attempt by the BJP to destroy the democratic process in a clandestine manner."

In an X post, Venugopal said that it's the BJP's "desperate attempt to snatch a seat from Congress." He also dismissed the concealing information allegation in Natarajan's nomination paper as “complete humbug."

"They stooped so low as to reject her nomination when they realised that their dirty tricks to compromise our Congress MLAs were going to fail. This shows the BJP’s hollow commitment to the Constitution and democracy. At every step of the way, they are hell-bent on Vote Chori - one way or another," he wrote on X.

Venugopal called the development "a daylight robbery of democracy," hinting that the party will take a legal route as well as political action on the streets, tooth and nail.

"Never in the democratic history of the country has a nomination paper been rejected without stating the reason; there is no FIR, chargesheet against our candidate. But it was done deliberately..." Congress leader Sachin Pilot said.

What's the number game here?

In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, an RS candidate needs 58 votes to secure victory. With around 165 MLAs, the BJP can comfortably ensure the election of its two nominees, Tarun Chugh and Rajneesh Agarwal, by drawing on 116 votes. That still leaves the party with a surplus of about 47 to 49 votes.

The Congress, with 65 MLAs, had sufficient numbers to send Natarajan to the Upper House. However, ongoing disqualification proceedings against Bina MLA Nirmala Sapre and uncertainty over the voting status of some legislators narrowed its safety margin.

Due to this, the party opted to avoid any risk and was preparing to shift its MLAs to Congress-ruled Karnataka.

Elections are being held for 24 Rajya Sabha seats, along with by-elections for three others.

With inputs from agencies