Who’s Meenakshi Natarajan? Rahul Gandhi’s OG workforce member at centre of RS nomination row
Congress chief Meenakshi Natarajan, one of many candidates for the upcoming elections to a few Rajya Sabha seats in Madhya Pradesh, confronted a setback as her nomination was rejected by the returning officer on Tuesday.
This got here after her ballot rival, BJP candidate Mahesh Kewat, who’s contesting the third Rajya Sabha seat, submitted a criticism to the returning officer claiming Natarajan had intentionally hid info relating to a case filed in opposition to her in Telangana.
Who’s Meenakshi Natarajan?
Natarajan is a former Member of Parliament (MP), who represented the Mandsaur constituency in Madhya Pradesh from 2009 to 2014, this being her solely time period within the Home.
Natarajan retains a particularly low profile, and has been thought of to be a detailed aide of former celebration president and the current chief of opposition (LoP) within the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, since he formally entered into the Congress in 2004.
Natarajan’s entry into the best echelons of the Congress is intently tied to Rahul Gandhi’s formal debut within the celebration within the late 2000s. When Rahul Gandhi was appointed as a Normal Secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in late 2007, he had a particular mandate to revamp the Nationwide College students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the Indian Youth Congress (IYC). Natarajan was one of many very first leaders he introduced into his inside circle to hold that out.
In 2008, Rahul Gandhi formally inducted Natarajan into the central celebration construction by choosing her as an AICC secretary to work with him. She was among the many group of leaders Rahul had handpicked to contest the Lok Sabha elections in 2009 and didn’t disappoint, successful a seat the Congress had misplaced to the BJP for six consecutive phrases.
Nevertheless, Natarajan couldn’t recreate the feat in 2014 and subsequently 2019, shedding Mandsaur to BJP’s Sudhir Gupta each instances. Nevertheless, she got here again into the highlight after she was was appointed the All India Congress Committee (AICC) Telangana in-charge in February, 2025.
‘Vote theft has now develop into seat theft’: Natarajan responds to rejection of nomination
After her nomination was cancelled, Natarajan alleged that “it began” after the BJP fielded a 3rd candidate.
“When the variety of members was not enough, and the BJP fielded third candidate, it began from there, and we began to know that they’re doing the politics of muzzling the democracy, Structure,” she stated, based on PTI information company.
Accusing the BJP of “seat theft”, Natarajan claimed that arguments offered by her advocates had not been heard. “What was restricted to vote theft, has now develop into seat theft… Once they felt this was a united home and never the divided home, then in guise of authorized discover, which was not taken cognisance, they challenged the election petition. Our each the advocated offered the arguments, these weren’t heard, and the choice got here,” she added.
