Can Meenakshi Natarajan Undo Her Rajya Sabha Rejection? Here's The Catch

Last Updated:June 12, 2026, 11:02 IST

The biggest obstacle for Natarajan then is not whether she has a legal argument. It is whether any victory can arrive in time to matter

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept the Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh on Thursday as its three candidates were elected unopposed, days after Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination was rejected by the Returning Officer.

Natarajan has moved the Supreme Court, challenging the decision, but even if she ultimately succeeds in proving that her nomination was wrongly rejected, the available legal remedies may offer little practical relief.

The reason lies in India’s election law itself.

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Under the Representation of the People Act, courts generally do not interfere with an ongoing election process. Once results are declared, the principal remedy is an election petition before the relevant high court, filed within 45 days. One of the grounds on which a court can set aside an election is if a nomination was “improperly rejected".

On paper, that sounds like a powerful safeguard. But in practice, however, election petitions are notorious for taking years.

According to The Indian Express, although the law says election petitions should be decided as expeditiously as possible and preferably within six months, many continue for years. The classic example is the challenge to former prime minister Indira Gandhi that culminated four years after the election. More recent election disputes have also dragged on for more than a decade.

Why The Timing Matters

The Supreme Court agreed to hear Natarajan’s plea but declined to stay the declaration of Rajya Sabha results. Meanwhile, all three BJP candidates from Madhya Pradesh have already been declared elected and handed victory certificates.

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That means the political event Congress wanted to prevent has already happened.

Even if a future court eventually concludes that Natarajan’s nomination was wrongly rejected, the challenge would be directed against an election that has already been completed and acted upon. The BJP nominees would have been serving in the Rajya Sabha during the entire litigation period.

Congress’s Catch-22 Situation

Congress argues that Natarajan was not required to disclose the Telangana case because no court had taken cognisance in the manner required by law and no charges had been framed. It also maintains that the Election Commission had the power to reverse the Returning Officer’s decision before the election concluded.

But the Election Commission did not intervene before the process concluded, and the Supreme Court refused to halt the election timetable. That leaves Congress largely dependent on post-election litigation.

The biggest obstacle for Natarajan then is not whether she has a legal argument. It is whether any victory can arrive in time to matter.

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The election law may allow her to challenge the rejection. A court may even eventually find that her nomination was improperly rejected. But unless the judiciary delivers an unusually swift verdict, the Rajya Sabha seats will already be occupied and functioning long before the dispute is resolved.

That is why, politically, the election-petition route increasingly looks like a dead end: it offers a possible legal remedy, but not necessarily a meaningful political one.

About the Author

Apoorva Misra

Apoorva Misra is News Editor at News18.com with over nine years of experience. She is a graduate from Delhi University's Lady Shri Ram College and holds a PG Diploma from Asian College of Journalism, ...Read More

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