Top Congress leaders, together with Mallikarjun Kharge and Sonia Gandhi, have been in attendance.
New Delhi:
The Congress has deliberate a nationwide motion to protest in opposition to the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi because the member of parliament, a day after a courtroom convicted him of defamation for feedback that many thought of insulting to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The determination was taken at a technique assembly this night attended by prime Congress leaders, together with social gathering chief Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress president Sonia Gandhi and former Union Minister P Chidambaram.
“We discussed political strategy on Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification. Abhishek Manu Singhvi briefed the members on the legal strategy. We have planned protests across the country in the coming days,” mentioned senior Congress chief Jairam Ramesh.
Several Congress lawmakers and leaders of regional opposition events – Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, MK Stalin, Uddhav Thackeray, KCR, Akhilesh Yadav – backed Mr Gandhi and attacked the ruling BJP authorities for its “dictatorship”.
The Congress social gathering welcomed the assertion of assist of all opppsition leaders and referred to as for a “systematic” opposition unity.
“The Congress welcomes statement of support of all oppn leaders, we should now take issue of oppn unity forward in systematic way,” Mr Ramesh mentioned, including, “The Congress president has been coordinating with oppn parties everyday in parliament, now this has to be done outside also.”
Besides Mr Kharge and Sonia Gandhi, Congress common secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Rajiv Shukla and Tariq Anwar, senior leaders Anand Sharma, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid and Pawan Kumar Bansal, amongst others, have been additionally current on the assembly.
Rahul Gandhi “stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction”, the decrease home of parliament mentioned in a discover earlier at the moment.
“I am fighting for the voice of India and am ready to pay any price for it,” he tweeted in Hindi, in his first response after the disqualification.
The 52-year-old was convicted and sentenced to jail for 2 years by a courtroom in Surat on Thursday after he was discovered responsible of defamation in reference to a 2019 speech during which he referred to thieves as having the surname Modi.
His feedback have been seen as a slur in opposition to the Prime Minister, who went on to win the election in a landslide.
He is because of attraction in opposition to the decision in a district courtroom in Gujarat, additionally PM Modi’s dwelling state.
Members of the federal government and different BJP leaders mentioned Mr Gandhi’s comment was a smear in opposition to all these sharing the Modi surname.
“Rahul Gandhi is a habitual loose cannon and he thinks he can say anything without ever facing the consequences,” data minister Anurag Thakur mentioned. Ravi Shankar Prasad, a spokesman for the BJP, mentioned the courtroom had acted with “due judicial process”.
Earlier at the moment, Congress lawmakers gathered exterior the parliament to protest Mr Gandhi’s conviction, Some social gathering members additionally staged protests in opposition to his disqualification throughout the nation.
