NEW DELHI — Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan on Friday asserted that the party will continue their “fight” for justice following the Supreme Court declining to interfere with the Returning Officer’s decision rejecting her nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh over the alleged non-disclosure of a criminal case in Telangana.
The court observed that once a Returning Officer rejects a nomination paper, the statutory remedy available to an aggrieved candidate is to approach the Election Commission. It, therefore, refused to grant relief and left it open for Natarajan to approach the poll panel.
Speaking to IANS, Natarajan said: “We will continue to fight. In a democracy, there is another court which is of the public, we will take our fight there.”
While refusing to comment on the decision of the Supreme Court, she said: “We approached the Election Commission, but it did not take any decision, even after 48 hours, it has maintained silence.”
Addressing reporters later, she said: “We will take our next step according to what the senior leaders of the party decide. We will keep fighting our battle across forums. Even though our plea has been dismissed, we are free to take our fight to the people.”
“We are not disappointed; the entire party is standing together. We are not shocked by the court’s decision, but we all should be worried about the tremors being felt by the democracy.”
Defending Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabga Rahul Gandhi’s “seat chori” allegation, Natarajan said: “Seat chori is very evident, and everyone has been a witness to it. The nomination of a candidate belonging to a corporate setup is not cancelled, whereas the nomination of one who is contesting on the basis of constitutional values gets cancelled.”
“This is not the first time our party leaders have been talking about ‘vote chori’ and now ‘seat chori’ is taking place,” she added.
Further, she stated: “I have been reiterating that the Election Commission is compromised. This has been proved again today.” — IANS
