NEW DELHI: A day after Rahul Gandhi attracted instant disqualification from the Lok Sabha over his conviction and two-year sentencing for defamation by a Surat court, the Lok Sabha Secretariat today formally notified the disqualification, ending the Congress leader’s 19-year House membership.
He was first elected to the Lok Sabha from Amethi in 2004.
With the Congress leader set to lose all perks and perquisites of an MP (including his 12, Tuglaq Lane residence), the developments today triggered a massive political faceoff between the ruling BJP and the Congress ahead of elections in six states Karnataka, Telangana, Mizoram, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh. Both parties spun their own narratives around the event which brought an otherwise divided opposition together with AAP, TMC, SP, DMK, and SAD supporting Rahul.
While the Congress sought to paint their former chief as a martyr, terming his conviction and disqualification a “price he paid for speaking the truth on the Adani scam, GST, demonetisation and China’s LAC aggressions,” the BJP described the trial court action as a punishment for a “feudalistic leader who habitually abused the backward and the poor and believed he was above law and the nation”.
BJP chief JP Nadda articulated the party’s line on the issue today by saying that Rahul had insulted the entire OBC community by calling them a thief. Rahul has been convicted of his defamatory remark: “How come all thieves have Modi surname?”
“This battle is political before it is legal,” said AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh, adding that what happened is part of a pattern to harass Rahul.