Country is drifting towards electoral autocracy: Congress

The Congress on Friday (June 12, 2026) intensified its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission of India over the rejection of its Rajya Sabha candidate Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination from Madhya Pradesh, alleging that the ruling party had graduated from “vote chori” to “seat chori” (seat theft). It said the country was “drifting towards electoral autocracy”.

The principal Opposition party said the BJP and the poll body were partners in crime, and the ruling party was subverting democratic institutions for political gain. The party’s charge came at a press conference attended by 61 Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh, who travelled to Delhi to express support for Ms. Natarajan and seek an appointment with the President.

The MLAs, who had planned to march from the party’s 24, Akbar Road office to the Rashtrapati Bhavan, were detained by the Delhi Police.

Leaders pointed out that Ms. Natarajan required the backing of only 58 legislators to secure election to the Upper House, lower than the party’s strength in Madhya Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari alleged that the BJP resorted to extraordinary measures after failing to engineer defections within the Congress legislature party.

Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Umang Singhar said the episode reflected a broader democratic decline. “The country is drifting towards electoral autocracy,” he said, citing what he alleged was the centralisation of executive power, weakening of legislative oversight and curbs on freedom of expression.

AICC in-charge for Madhya Pradesh Harish Chaudhary said the contest in the country was now between the “constitutional model” and the “Modi model”. He alleged that institutions meant to function impartially were increasingly acting in a partisan manner.

Explaining her case, Ms. Natarajan said her nomination had been rejected on the ground that she failed to disclose a criminal case in Form 26. She maintained that no criminal case was pending against her and that the matter referred to by the Returning Officer was a private complaint on which no court had taken cognisance.

“The root of this entire matter is Form 26,” she said, adding, “If there was a column for it, I would have given the details.” She argued that election rules require disclosure only of cases in which charges have been framed or a court has formally taken cognisance.

The Congress also alleged “double standards” in the scrutiny of nominations, contrasting Ms. Natarajan’s case with that of BJP-backed candidate Parimal Nathwani in Jharkhand. It said that while Ms. Natarajan faced “farcically stringent” scrutiny, Mr. Nathwani was given opportunities to rectify deficiencies in his papers.

In a separate attack on the BJP, Congress general secretary (communications) Jairam Ramesh accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of attempting to “engineer” a two-thirds majority for the ruling party in Parliament by encouraging defections from Opposition parties. “The fight is on. His evil designs must not and will not succeed,” Mr. Ramesh said in a post on X.