The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was declared winner of all three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh on June 11, 2026, after its candidates — Rajneesh Agrawal, Tarun Chugh and Mahesh Kevat — were declared elected unopposed when the deadline for withdrawals passed with no other valid contenders. Returning officer Arvind Sharma handed the three leaders their election certificates following the close of nominations.
The uncontested victory followed the rejection of the Congress’s sole nominee, Meenakshi Natarajan, whose nomination was rejected on June 9, 2026, after objections were filed by BJP leaders including Kevat. The objections alleged that Natarajan had concealed details of a pending matter in a Hyderabad court on her election affidavit. The returning officer upheld the challenge, ruling that her nomination form was incomplete and that she had failed to disclose a court summons linked to a 2022 rape case filed against a Congress leader in Telangana.
Hours after the returning officer’s decision, the Supreme Court agreed to hear Natarajan’s petition challenging the rejection but declined to stay the Rajya Sabha election process. Senior lawyer Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for Natarajan, told a bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S. Chandurkar that “My nomination has been rejected even though there is no cognisance taken by the court. How can they do this?” He sought an interim order to prevent declaration of the election result. The bench, however, referred to the precedent set in Election Commission of India v. Ashok Kumar (2000), noting that courts ordinarily refrain from intervening once the electoral process has started.
The Congress has accused election officials of bias. Madhya Pradesh Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar said the returning officer “blatantly flouted the rules” and accused the Election Commission’s officers of acting as a “rubber stamp” for the BJP, contrasting the decision with a validation granted to a BJP candidate in Jharkhand. Kevat, who benefited from the rejection of Natarajan’s papers, credited the party’s grassroots work for his elevation, saying, “It can happen only in the BJP that a small worker from Bundelkhand like me becomes a Rajya Sabha MP.”
Original Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/3-bjp-candidates-win-rajya-sabha-mp-race-after-meenakshi-natarajan-s-exit-101781181313284.html
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Publish Date: 2026-06-12 04:54:00
