Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) [India], June 10 (ANI): As Congress leaders protested the rejection of Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections, the Election Commission (EC) announced that it will meet a party delegation on Wednesday.

The Congress leaders called off their protest outside the EC office in New Delhi after Deputy Chief Election Officer (Madhya Pradesh) Sanjay Kumar Shrivastava gave them time to meet the concerned Chief Electoral Officer (CEO).

Speaking to ANI, Shrivastava clarified that the meeting could not take place immediately because the CEO was unwell.

'We have given a time. We will invite the CEO. He has been unwell today, which is why we haven't been able to talk,' he said.

Congress has levelled serious allegations against the EC and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), with party candidate Meenakshi Natarajan accusing the ruling party of attempting to 'trample the Constitution and democracy'. She said that there was an attempt to 'manipulate' the Rajya Sabha elections.

Madhya Pradesh Leader of Opposition (LoP) Umang Singhar said that the entire Congress Legislative Party (CLP) will meet with the CEO on Wednesday morning to demand that a recently invalidated nomination form be declared valid.

Speaking to ANI, Singhar said, 'Just as we staged a sit-in today demanding a meeting with the CEO. The Deputy CEO informed us that a meeting with the MLAs would be arranged for tomorrow morning at 11 AM. The entire Congress legislative party will arrive at that time. Regarding the incident that occurred today, specifically the invalidation of the form, we will demand that it be declared valid. We will take this matter up with the CEO of the Election Commission.'

Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mohan Yadav welcomed the rejection of Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections, stating that concealing a criminal record is a serious offence. He also urged the opposition party to reflect on fielding such candidates.

Speaking to reporters, CM said, 'The information deliberately withheld by the Congress candidate amounts to the offence of concealing a criminal record. In reality, if one has a pending criminal case in any court, it must be disclosed in the affidavit so that every voter is aware of all relevant details when one becomes a candidate. I welcome the decision taken, specifically regarding the scrutiny phase of the entire election process. Congress should now introspect on why they field candidates with such criminal records.'

On Tuesday, Congress slammed the BJP after nomination papers of Natarajan, the party's candidate for Rajya Sabha elections in Madhya Pradesh, were rejected.

Congress general secretary KC Venugopal said that rejecting Natarajan's 'nomination to the Rajya Sabha is a blatant attempt by the BJP to destroy the democratic process in a clandestine manner'.

'The allegation of any error or non-disclosure in her nomination is complete humbug and a desperate attempt to snatch a seat from the INC. They stooped so low as to reject her nomination when they realised that their dirty tricks to compromise our INC MLAs is going to fail,' he posted on X.

'This shows the BJP's hollow commitment to the Constitution and democracy. At every step of the way, they are hell-bent on Vote Chori - one way or another. We will not take this daylight robbery of democracy lying down, and will fight this legally as well as politically on the streets tooth-and-nail,' Venugopal added.

Congress leader Jairam Ramesh, who was among the senior party leaders to reach the Election Commission office here, said that they wanted to submit a petition to the constitutional body.

The polling for Rajya Sabha biennial elections is slated to take place on June 18. (ANI)