Rahul set to lose official 12 Tughlaq Lane residence

‘Greater threat to the party is that unless a higher court stays his conviction, he won’t be able to contest elections for 8 years’.

With former Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, getting disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP, the Gandhi scion is set to lose his official Lutyens’ Delhi residence at 12, Tughlaq Lane. Gandhi’s current bungalow comes in “Type 8’ category which is the highest. Moreover, sources claim that the bypolls for the Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, which Gandhi represented, will be held next month in April.

The case in which Rahul Gandhi was disqualified pertains to the remarks made by him on 13 April 2019, at a Lok Sabha election rally in Karnataka’s Kolar where he said, “Why all thieves have Modi in their names whether be it Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, and Narendra Modi?” This remark, BJP leaders say, defamed the “Modi community”. Thus, a court in Surat sentenced Rahul Gandhi to two years in jail in the defamation case on Thursday. However, he was granted bail immediately and the sentence was suspended for a month.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday claimed that during the course of the inquiry, the Surat court, which sentenced Rahul Gandhi to a two-year jail term in the criminal defamation case, asked the Congress leader “again and again” if he will apologise, but he refused.

Meanwhile, the greater threat to the party is that unless a higher court (Supreme Court) stays his conviction by the Surat court in the 2019 criminal defamation case, Rahul Gandhi would not be able to contest elections for eight years. It has also raised fears among Congress leaders that their party would be in deep disarray if the grand old party’s prime candidate remains disqualified.

The Gandhi scion is expected to be the face of the party for the coming general elections.

One the other hand, it has also created an “opportunity” among Opposition leaders to hit out at the Centre for allegedly trying to silence the opposition. A political analyst said, “It has done one important thing and that is it has united the Opposition. Even Arvind Kejriwal, who has preferred to stay silent over the central agencies’ manhunt of Congress leaders, has now also come in support of Rahul Gandhi. This is a welcome development in the Opposition camp. This disqualification has united the Opposition camp.”

Congress leaders on Friday questioned the legality of the disqualification. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge told a news agency that they (BJP) tried all means to disqualify him. “They don’t want to keep those who are speaking the truth, but we will continue to speak the truth. We’ll continue to demand JPC; if needed we’ll go to jail to save democracy.”

After Rahul’s disqualification, Shashi Tharoor tweeted, “I am stunned by this action and by its rapidity within 24 hours of the court verdict and while an appeal was known to be in process. This is politics with gloves off and it bodes ill for our democracy.”

A similar incident had taken place on 12 June 1975, when Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad High Court invalidated Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, then-prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s electoral victory, and barred her from holding elected office for six years. It was after this that Indira Gandhi declared Emergency.

Parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday said that during the course of the hearing, the Surat court, which sentenced Rahul Gandhi to a two-year jail term in the criminal defamation case, asked the Congress leader “again and again” if he would apologise, but he refused.