New Delhi

The Congress on Friday announced a 'Satyagraha' protest at Jantar Mantar in the national capital against the Election Commission of India (ECI) over the rejection of party leader Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections from Madhya Pradesh.

The protest is scheduled to begin at 10 am.

The development comes after electoral authorities rejected Natarajan's nomination papers, citing alleged irregularities in her election affidavit. The decision has triggered protests from the Congress, which has accused the Election Commission of acting unfairly.

Earlier this week, a 10-member Congress delegation met the Chief Election Commissioner to raise concerns over the issue.

Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, on Thursday criticised both the Election Commission and the BJP, alleging a "jugalbandi" between the two and claiming that the Rajya Sabha biennial elections had effectively been decided before voting due to what he termed "seat chori".

In an X post, Gandhi flagged the cancellation of Meenakshi Natranjan's nomination papers, who was the Congress' Rajya Sabha election candidate from Madhya Pradesh.

"After Vote Chori and Sarkar Chori, the BJP-EC jugalbandi has finished the contest before it has even begun with Seat Chori. Look at what happened in the recent Rajya Sabha elections. Congress candidate Meenakshi Natarajan ji submitted every document. No pending cases. The EC cancelled her nomination on a frivolous BJP objection," he said.

Gandhi also underlined that Parimal Nathwani, the BJP-backed independent candidate for the Rajya Sabha elections from Jharkhand, skipped mandatory details while writing his own name wrong in the form, and yet he was given time from the ECI to fix the mistakes.

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"Parimal Nathwani, the BJP-backed independent, got his own name wrong on the form and skipped multiple mandatory disclosures. The EC gave him an extension to fix everything," he said.