Shillong, March 26: In opposition to Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha, the Congress planned a day long “Satyagraha” on Sunday in front of Mahatma Gandhi’s statues at all state capitals. The demonstrations started at 10 am and will last till 5 pm.
The congress party was not given permission by the Delhi Police to demonstrate at Rajgat, though. Authorities denied the request and implemented Section 144 of the CrPc in the area, citing the need to manage traffic.
Notwithstanding the constraints, senior Congress leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, KC Venugopal, and Jairam Ramesh arrived at Raj Ghat for the protest.
Rahul Gandhi was convicted in a 2019 defamation lawsuit, and as a result, he was disqualified as Lok Sabha MP. He had said “why all thieves have Modi surname” at a rally in Kolar, Karnataka, prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
In the meantime, a defiant Rahul Gandhi stated on Saturday that by barring him from the Parliament, the government had given the opposition a “huge weapon” and that he would continue to fight democracy in the nation regardless of the consequences.
In retaliation, senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad claimed that Rahul Gandhi had insulted the underprivileged and that he had been found guilty in a defamation case for his 2019 comments.