New Delhi: In the 2009 Lok Sabha election, Meenakshi Natarajan won from Madhya Pradesh’s Mandsaur constituency, a seat the Congress had lost six consecutive times to BJP’s Laxminarayan Pandey since 1989.
The election also marked Rahul Gandhi’s emergence as the party’s undisputed leader alongside a group of leaders, such as Natarajan, who he had handpicked to contest. Her victory helped establish her as one of Team Rahul’s key members.
Despite her influence within the party, Natarajan couldn’t replicate her success in the 2014 and 2019 LS elections, losing heavily to BJP’s Sudhir Gupta both times and subsequently fading from the limelight. However, she continued as the chairperson of the Rajiv Gandhi Panchayati Raj Sangathan, a project close to the Gandhi family’s heart, until August 2024.
Natarajan marked a comeback in the Congress party’s inner circle Friday when she was made the All India Congress Committee in-charge of Telangana among other appointments during an organisational rejig.
Apart from Natarajan, the Congress appointed a new set of general secretaries and in-charges, including former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain, Rajani Patil, B.K. Hariprasad, and Ajay Kumar Lallu.
The caste composition of the new AICC office-bearers aligns with Rahul’s social justice agenda. Of the appointees, five are OBCs, and one each represents the Dalit, tribal, and Muslim communities.
‘Gandhian’ lifestyle
Born and raised in Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, Natarajan first ventured into politics with the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). She was appointed the NSUI president in 1999 and held the charge till 2002.
From 2002 to 2005, she served as the Madhya Pradesh Youth Congress president. At the time, she courted controversy by reportedly coining the slogan, ‘Gau hamari mata hai, Atal Bihari khata hai’, indicating that Atal Bihari Vajpayee was a beef-eater.
In 2008, she emerged as an AICC secretary as part of Rahul Gandhi’s push to induct youth from the grassroots, laying the foundation for her rapid rise within Congress. A year later, she became an MP.
Beyond her LS victory, what caught the attention of the national press was Natarajan’s ‘Gandhian’ lifestyle, made even starker by her choice of simple attire and travels in autos and buses. Natarajan also had close associations with social activists Baba Amte and Subba Rao.
Her austere traits endeared her to the Gandhi family, and she became a close associate of Rahul, alongside Bhanwar Jitendra Singh and Ashok Tanwar, who won the 2009 LS election from Alwar and Sirsa, respectively.
In 2012, she landed in a spot after drafting the Print and Electronic Media Standards and Regulation Bill, 2012, a private members’ Bill that she wanted to introduce in the Parliament. However, the Bill was not tabled as she was absent from the Lok Sabha when the turn came.
The proposals in the Bill included the need to set up a body beyond the purview of the RTI Act and civil courts for suo motu investigation of complaints against the media and for “imposing a ban” or “suspending” coverage of any event or incident that could potentially pose a threat to national security. The Bill triggered a backlash, prompting the Congress party to distance itself from it.
“While the freedom of speech and expression has to be respected, there appears no other option but to regulate the print and electronic media and impose on it certain crucial reasonable restrictions, which are needed for the purpose of protecting national interest,” said the statement of objects and reasons of the Bill.
The development, however, had no bearing on Natarajan’s proximity to the Congress high command. She opened the Lok Sabha debate on the Land Acquisition Bill from the Congress in 2013.
She was one of the 16 candidates Rahul selected through US-style primaries during the 2014 general elections, a move ostensibly aimed at democratising the party.
Although she won the 2009 election by a margin of 30,819 votes, Natarajan, who lost the 2014 and 2019 elections by significant margins of 3.3 lakh and 3.76 lakh votes, respectively, was relegated to the margins until her latest comeback.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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