The country is moving towards electoral autocracy: Congress

Congress leader Meenakshi Natarajan with MLAs and leaders from Madhya Pradesh addressing the media at AICC in New Delhi on June 12, 2026. | Photo credit: Sushil Kumar Verma

The Congress on Friday (June 12, 2026) stepped up its attack on the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Election Commission of India over the rejection of the nomination of its Rajya Sabha candidate Meenakshi Natarajan from Madhya Pradesh, alleging that the ruling party has gone from ‘vote chori’ (seat chori) to ‘seat chori’. She said the country was “moving towards an electoral autocracy”.

The main opposition party said the BJP and the electoral body were partners in crime and the ruling party was subverting democratic institutions for political gain. The party’s accusation was made at a press conference attended by 61 Congress MLAs from Madhya Pradesh, who traveled to Delhi to express their support for Ms Natarajan and seek a meeting with the President.

The MLAs, who were planning to march from the party’s Akbar Road 24 office to Rashtrapati Bhavan, were detained by the Delhi Police.

Leaders pointed out that Ms Natarajan required the support of only 58 legislators to secure election to the upper house, less than the party’s strength in Madhya Pradesh.

Madhya Pradesh Congress president Jitu Patwari alleged that the BJP resorted to emergency measures after failing to engineer defections within the Congress legislature party.

Leader of the Opposition in the State Assembly Umang Singhar said the episode reflected a wider democratic decline. “The country is moving towards an electoral autocracy,” he said, referring to the centralization of executive power, weakening of legislative oversight and restrictions on freedom of expression.

AICC Madhya Pradesh in-charge Harish Chaudhary said the contest in the country is now between the “constitutional model” and the “Modi model”. He argued that institutions that were supposed to function impartially were acting more and more partisan.

Explaining her case, Ms. Natarajan said that her nomination was rejected on the basis that she had not disclosed the criminal case in Form 26. She claimed that there was no criminal case pending against her and that the matter referred to by the Returning Officer was a private complaint which had not been taken cognizance of by any court.

“The basis of this whole thing is the Form 26,” she said, adding: “If there was a column for that, I would give the details.” She argued that election rules only require disclosure of cases in which allegations have been made or formally taken cognizance of by a court.

The Congress also alleged “double standards” in vetting nominations, contrasting Ms Natarajan’s case with that of BJP-backed candidate Parimal Nathwani in Jharkhand. It said that while Ms Natarajan faced “farcically rigorous” scrutiny, Mr Nathwani was given the opportunity to correct deficiencies in his documents.

In a separate attack on the BJP, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh accused Union Home Minister Amit Shah of trying to “project” a two-thirds majority for the ruling party in Parliament by encouraging defections from opposition parties. “The fight continues. His diabolical plans must not and will not succeed,” Mr Ramesh said in a post on X.

Published – 12 Jun 2026 23:06 IST