Rahul Gandhi disqualified as Lok Sabha MP

New Delhi: Congress MP Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified from his position after being sentenced to a two-year jail term by a Gujarat court in a 2019 defamation case.

His conviction was due to his statement of “why all thieves have Modi surname.”

“Consequent upon his conviction by the Court of Chief Judicial Magistrate, Surat in C.C./ 18712/2019, Shri Rahul Gandhi, Member of Lok Sabha representing the Wayanad Parliamentary Constituency of Kerala stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 23 March, 2023 in terms of the provisions of Article 102(1)(e) of the Constitution of India read with Section 8 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951,” the Lok Sabha notice read.

A Surat court sentenced former Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to two years in prison on Thursday for using the surname Modi to refer to thieves. However, the court granted bail to the Congress leader and suspended the sentence for one month to allow him to appeal the decision.

In April 2019, BJP MLA from Surat West and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi filed a complaint against Rahul Gandhi under IPC 499 and 500 for his statement. The alleged remark was made by the Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad during a rally in Kolar, Karnataka prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.