NDA Sweeps Rajya Sabha Nominations: BJP Bags All Three MP Seats as Congress Cries Foul, Heads to Court

Thursday, June 11, marked the last date for withdrawal of nominations in the June 2026 round of Rajya Sabha elections, and as the deadlines closed across ten states, the shape of India's Upper House for the next six years came sharply into view. The Election Commission has scheduled polling for 27 seats on June 18 across states including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, and smaller states including Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram, along with bypolls in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Odisha. But by the time the withdrawal window shut Thursday evening, contests had been avoided in several states, and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance found itself in a commanding position even before a single vote is cast.

The day's most explosive development came from Madhya Pradesh, where the BJP secured all three Rajya Sabha seats after its candidates, Rajneesh Agrawal , Tarun Chugh and Mahesh Kewat , were declared elected unopposed following the rejection of Congress nominee Meenakshi Natarajan's nomination papers during scrutiny, leaving no challenger in the contest. The Returning Officer held that Natarajan had withheld information regarding a pending criminal case in a Hyderabad court from her nomination papers, specifically a pre-cognizance notice issued in connection with a harassment complaint. The Congress categorically rejected this reasoning, with senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi calling the decision arbitrary and politically motivated . Natarajan moved the Supreme Court against the rejection on Thursday, describing the Returning Officer's order as "arbitrary, biased and contrary to law" and seeking urgent relief. The apex court agreed to take up the matter on Friday, even as it questioned the maintainability of the challenge while the election process was still in motion. MP Congress chief Jitu Patwari announced state-wide protests outside BJP offices, a delegation to meet the President, and a parallel petition in the Madhya Pradesh High Court .

In Andhra Pradesh, four candidates from the TDP and Jana Sena parties were set to be elected unopposed, TDP's Sana Satish , Bashyam Ramakrishna , and Chintakayala Vijay , along with Jana Sena's Lingamaneni Ramesh . Ramesh, a major industrialist from Vijayawada and a trusted associate of JSP chief Pawan Kalyan , would secure Jana Sena's historic first-ever presence in the Rajya Sabha.

In Rajasthan, all three candidates, BJP's Satish Poonia and Alka Gurjar along with Congress's Neeraj Dangi , were set to be elected unopposed, with their certificates to be awarded following the withdrawal deadline.

In Karnataka, where four seats fall vacant, the Congress has fielded party president Mallikarjun Kharge for re-election alongside Pawan Khera and Mansoor Ali Khan , while the BJP and JD(S) have their own nominees in the fray. Going by assembly numbers, the Congress is expected to win three seats in Karnataka, with the BJP likely to secure only one. The Karnataka seats are among the few that appear headed to an actual contest on June 18.

In Gujarat, the BJP fielded four candidates, Rajubhai Shukla , Mukeshbhai Rathwa , Mansingh Parmar and Jitendra Meghjibhai Kanzariya , for the four vacant seats, with the Congress having lost its Gujarat foothold in recent assembly elections. The BJP is expected to retain all four Gujarat seats , including the one previously held by Congress veteran Shaktisinh Gohil .

The June round follows the March 2026 election, in which the NDA won 22 of 37 seats , defeating opposition alliances in Bihar, Haryana and Odisha. In that round, all three NDA candidates in Assam, Jogen Mohan and Terash Gowalla of the BJP and Pramod Boro of the UPPL, were elected unopposed, and six seats from Tamil Nadu were filled without a contest, with DMK's Tiruchi Siva and Constantine Ravindran , Congress's Christopher Manickam , DMDK's L.K. Sudhish , and AIADMK's M. Thambidurai among those elected.

The ongoing Rajya Sabha cycle is part of a larger reshaping of the 245-member Upper House. With the NDA already holding a working majority and the June round yielding several walkovers in its favour, the Meenakshi Natarajan episode has injected a rare note of legal and constitutional drama into what would otherwise have been a routine biennial exercise. Whether the Supreme Court reopens the Madhya Pradesh question on Friday or lets the sweep stand, the political battle over the legitimacy of the nomination rejection process has only just begun.