'Seat chori after vote chori': Telangana Congress junks BJP’s claims, says there’s no case against Meenakshi Natarajan

HYDERABAD: A political controversy erupted on Tuesday after Madhya Pradesh minister Kailash Vijayvargiya claimed they received the details of a pending case against AICC Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan from the Congress leaders in Telangana.

However, the Congress pointed out that there was never any case against Natarajan.

Countering the BJP's claim, the Congress said a woman member of another party had approached Congress' senior leadership in the state, including Natarajan, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a Congress functionary.

The woman then approached a local court with a private petition alleging that despite bringing the matter to their notice, neither Natarajan nor other senior leaders took any action against the alleged assailant.

Meenakshi Natarajan has filed a counter to the allegations before the court. "The woman's private petition is pending before the court and no directions have been given yet," said advocate K Santosh Kumar who filed the counter.

Congress leaders also said that Meenakshi never met the accused and has no connection with the case the women mentioned.

Telangana chief minister A Revanth Reddy and other ministers reacted angrily to the BJP's claim and said the BJP after "vote chori" and SIR was now resorting to "seat chori". They said the nomination was rejected because of a conspiracy by the BJP in Madhya Pradesh.

"This is an assault on democracy. Peoples' voices are being stifled. This is a dark day for Indian democracy and needs to be condemned by all citizens. We will all fight for justice," Revanth posted on X.

TPCC president Mahesh Kumar Goud alleged that ECI was working in favour of the BJP.

"People are watching the dirty politics of the BJP. The Congress will fight legally against BJP's conspiracy and the ECI supporting it," he said.

Tourism minister Jupally Krishna Rao said elections must be conducted in a transparent, fair and impartial manner. He expressed concern over what he termed the targeting of opposition leaders and Congress representatives through such actions.

"Instead of winning the confidence of the people, attempts to secure political gain through undemocratic means only expose the ruling party's fear and insecurity," he said.