Political Activity Peaks During Scrutiny Of Nomination Papers

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Political activity peaked on Madhya Pradesh Assembly premises when the Returning Officer started scrutinising the nomination papers of three Rajya Sabha candidates of BJP and one Rajya Sabha candidate of Congress on Tuesday.

From noon onwards, leaders and workers of BJP and Congress started arriving at the Assembly to know the outcome of the scrutiny process.

Political equations came to a boil when the BJP challenged the nomination of Congress Rajya Sabha candidate Meenakshi Natarajan, accusing her of concealing information related to a court case in her affidavit.

Earlier, only a few Congress leaders were present outside the Returning Officer's chamber. But on learning that Natarajan's nomination form had been challenged by the BJP, more senior Congress leaders rushed to the Assembly.

Congress leaders, including Hemant Katare, reached the Assembly to defend the candidature of Meenakshi Natarajan.

BJP leaders, including MP VD Sharma, MLA Rameshwar Sharma, BJP General Secretary Rahul Kothari and others, were also seen at the Assembly premises.

Seeing the influx of political workers and media persons, the entry gate of the Assembly was closed after 3 pm. Later, around 5 pm, the Collector, Commissioner of Police, Additional District Magistrate and other senior officers went to the Assembly to take stock of the situation, which was tense due to the ongoing political activities.

The area outside the Returning Officer's chamber became chaotic as BJP and Congress leaders got entangled in heated exchanges and resorted to sloganeering.

Congress hid case details: Khandelwal

State BJP President Hemant Khandelwal accused Congress of hiding the alleged criminal record of its Rajya Sabha candidate. He added that in any nomination form, all information related to criminal offences should be disclosed.

But the Congress party tried to hide information about its Rajya Sabha candidate and thus wanted to keep voters confused. He said that whatever decision had been taken by the election authority was correct.