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Hyderabad: AICC in charge of Telangana Meenakshi Natarajan on Sunday said there was no conspiracy from Congress leaders, either in Telangana or any other state, and alleged that Election Commission (EC) and its two returning officers compromised with BJP and rejected her Rajya Sabha nomination in Madhya Pradesh.She also made it clear that she has no plans to cut short the tenure of any Rajya Sabha member from Telangana and take that seat. She brushed aside such talk as speculation and said: “I would never appreciate it. My politics is in MP and I will seek public mandate by contesting the Lok Sabha election or opt for Rajya Sabha from that state. Bartering seats is not our party model. There are exceptions like Manmohan Singh and Abhishek Manu Singhvi, as they were needed at the national level.
”Addressing a media conference at Gandhi Bhavan, her first visit to the state after rejection of her Rajya Sabha nomination, Meenakshi said BJP smartly floated a word that her pending court case details were leaked by Telangana Congress leaders.“This was a ploy of BJP to divert the attention and ensure that fingers were not raised against EC and its two returning officers for rejecting my nomination based on a civil complaint in court, a non-cognisant case.
There was no criminal case also,” she claimed.As all Congress MLAs in Madhya Pradesh supported her candidature, BJP realised that vote chori was not possible and indulged in seat chori. “After vote chori and seat chori, BJP is also indulging in party chori with ultimate intention of one nation-one party. Today, Congress is fighting not only a fascist BJP alone but a nexus involving ED, IT, CBI, RBI and EC,” she alleged.However, the AICC leader, known for following Gandhian ideology, said she and Congress were not disappointed. “The rank and file of Congress, and the people of the country understood the legitimacy of what
Rahul Gandhi
has been saying of how BJP was ensuring that national-level constitutional institutions are being forced to compromise with it. They are realising how constitutional institutions and democracy are under threat now,” she added.“All these conspiracy theories that the information was leaked from Congress are bogus and baseless. My nomination was rejected on the basis of a legal notice that did not constitute a criminal case or require disclosure in Form-26,” she stated.She further alleged that there was inconsistency in the treatment of similar cases in other instances, and said the returning officer wrongly recorded that cognisance had been taken, leading to the rejection of her nomination. Despite Congress approaching EC before the scrutiny deadline, no corrective action was taken, she added, prompting the party to approach the
Supreme Court
.Meenakshi Natarajan said the Supreme Court later disposed of the matter on technical grounds after the election certificate had already been issued. She added that the party would now pursue an election petition to challenge the result.Alleging collusion between BJP, MP govtStating that she would continue her fight for her Rajya Sabha seat with an election petition, the AICC leader said Congress always stood by the victims. Referring to the woman who filed the court case against her, she clarified that Congress had taken action and suspended its leader from the party, and did not give him an election ticket. “As far as I am concerned, I was not there as AICC in charge of Telangana when the incident occurred,” she added.
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