Amid the protests by the Congress against his disqualification from the Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi on April 5 will address a public meeting at Kolar in poll-bound Karnataka, the same place where he made the remark for which he was convicted of criminal defamation and stripped off his membership of the Lower House.
Speaking to ANI on Tuesday, a senior Congress member in Karnataka said the disqualified MP will return to Kolar for a campaign event on April 5.
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It was in Kolar that Rahul made the remark using the surname ‘Modi’ while headlining a campaign rally for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
A Surat court held him guilty of criminal defamation over this remark and sentenced him to 2 years’ imprinsionment. While the sentence was later suspended for a period of 30 days during which he can challenge his conviction in a higher court, Rahul was disqualified as an MP on March 24, as per a Supreme Court ruling in 2013. Under the ruling, any MP or MLA stands to be disqulaified automatically if convicted and sentenced to 2 years or more.
At the rally in Karnataka in April 2019, Rahul, in a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, said, “How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?”.
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After Rahul’s disqualification, the Lok Sabha Secretariat on March 27 sent him a notice, asking him to vacate the government bungalow following his disqualification as MP. The allotment of the government bungalow will be cancelled with effect from April 24.
Responding to this, in a letter to Deputy Secretary, MS Branch, Lok Sabha Secretariat dated March 28, Rahul wrote, “As an elected Member of Lok Sabha over last four terms, it is the mandate of the people to which I owe the happy memories of my time spent here. Without prejudice to my rights, I will, of course, abide by the details contained in your letter.”
Addressing a press conference a day after his disqualification as an MP, Rahul hit out at the BJP claiming that he was not scared of going to prison and his disqualification was aimed at distracting the people from the “Adani issue”.