The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept all three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh on Thursday, with its candidates being declared elected unopposed after the Supreme Court declined to halt the election process and Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan’s nomination remained rejected .
Returning Officer Arvind Sharma formally declared BJP nominees Rajneesh Agrawal, Tarun Chugh and Mahesh Kewat elected after the deadline for withdrawal of nominations expired, with no rival candidates remaining in the fray . The three leaders visited the Madhya Pradesh assembly complex to collect their certificates of victory .
Supreme Court refuses to intervene
Hours before the results were declared, the Supreme Court heard an urgent mention by senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, who sought a stay on the declaration of election results and an urgent hearing of Natarajan’s plea challenging the rejection of her nomination .
However, a vacation bench comprising Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra and Atul S Chandurkar refused to intervene in the ongoing electoral process . The court questioned the maintainability of the petition, noting that the proper legal recourse would be to file an election petition after the results were declared .
“Is this maintainable,” Justice Mishra asked, adding that the proper recourse is to file an election petition .
The bench directed that the matter be listed for hearing on Friday (June 12), subject to the curing of office defects . The court also noted that senior advocate D.S. Naidu, appearing for the Election Commission, had informed the bench that a copy of the petition had not been served on the poll body .
Why Natarajan’s nomination was rejected
Natarajan’s nomination was rejected on June 9 by Returning Officer Arvind Sharma following objections raised by BJP leaders, including Rajya Sabha candidate Mahesh Kewat . The returning officer ruled that Natarajan had submitted an incomplete affidavit in Form 26, allegedly omitting details of proceedings arising from a private complaint pending before a court in Hyderabad, Telangana .
The order noted that Natarajan had responded to a notice issued by the Hyderabad court in October 2025 but did not mention the matter in her nomination papers . The BJP argued that Supreme Court guidelines mandate disclosure of all pending criminal cases, while the Congress contended that no case was pending as the court had not taken cognisance of the complaint .
The Congress has termed the decision “unlawful, arbitrary and biased,” with Natarajan accusing the returning officer of being “compromised” and acting on the behest of the government .
Numbers that sealed the outcome
In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, the BJP has 164 MLAs and the Congress has 64, though two Congress MLAs are ineligible, reducing the party’s effective tally to 62 . Each candidate needs 58 votes to win a Rajya Sabha seat .
While the Congress had enough votes to win a single seat, the rejection of Natarajan’s nomination left the party without a candidate. The BJP fielded Kewat as its third candidate—beyond the two seats it could comfortably win—turning what was expected to be a close contest into a one-sided finish .
Political fallout
The Congress has accused the Election Commission of acting as a “rubber stamp” for the BJP . Leader of Opposition in the state assembly Umang Singhar alleged that the returning officer “blatantly flouted the rules, ignoring Supreme Court guidelines” .
Mahesh Kewat, a former chairman of the Madhya Pradesh Fisherman Welfare Board, credited the BJP for his elevation. “It can happen only in BJP that a small worker from Bundelkhand like me became Rajya Sabha MP,” he said .
Voting for the three Rajya Sabha seats from Madhya Pradesh was originally scheduled for June 18 . The seats were to fall vacant with the expiry of the terms of BJP’s George Kurien and Sumer Singh Solanki and senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh on June 21 .
The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear Natarajan’s plea on June 12 . The Congress, which cannot field another candidate as the nomination deadline passed on June 8, has indicated it will pursue all legal avenues to challenge the decision .
