Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified from his membership as a Member of Parliament (MP) from the Lok Sabha after his conviction and subsequent two-year prison sentence in a 2019 defamation case by a court in Gujarat’s Surat city yesterday.

After Parliament issued the notification of Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, various Congress leaders, as well as, prominent personalities came forward to slam the BJP government.

Congress Chief Mallikarjun Kharge also slammed the BJP by saying that the BJP tried all the ways to disqualify Rahul Gandhi. He further accused the BJP of trying to silence the ones who are speaking the truth.

Kharge said that Congress will continue speaking the truth and said that they will continue to demand Joint Parliamentary Committee in the Adani case. He further added and said that Congress is ready to go to jail to save democracy.

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Congress’s General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi took to Twitter to slam the BJP as she wrote about the scams done by Nirav Modi, Lalit Modi, and Mehul Choksi and further alleged the BJP of trying to rescue the people who looted the country’s money. She further questioned why the BJP is running away from the investigation.

Priyanka Gandhi further questioned if the BJP supports the corrupt and accused the saffron party of using cases against the leaders for raising questions.

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Congress’s General Secretary Jairam Ramesh also took to Twitter to add his take on the Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification. Ramesh, in his tweet, wrote that the Congress will fight this battle both legally and politically. He further added that the Congress are not going to be afraid or silent.

The Congress MP also prodded the BJP and wrote that Instead of the JPC, Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified in the Adani scam related to the Prime Minister.

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Leaders from across party lines also came forward as All India Trinamool Congress leader Derrek O’Brien also sided with Congress leader and said that BJP has hit the lowest of the lows in the history of Parliamentary democracy.

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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s sentence to 2 years in jail by a Surat Court in connection with a defamation case has brought turmoil in the political air of the nation.

The Party has organised a march to Vijay Chowk to protest against the verdict sentencing Rahul Gandhi to 2 years in jail in the defamation case. Reports said heavy security has been deployed at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi today.

Congress’ general secretary-in-charge of communications Jairam Ramesh on Thursday informed that the party president Mallikarjun Kharge called for a meeting of opposition parties on Friday.

Ramesh said more than 5o MPs met at Mallikarjun Kharge’s house. The Congress President and CLP leader will also have a meeting for programmes to be held in different states against the verdict.

Congress general secretary called the verdict so unfortunate as far as the party is concerned.

Reports further said the party is also planning to meet President Droupadi Murmu with other parties to discuss the matter and raise the issue in the second half of the Budget Session in the Parliament today.

BJP national spokesperson JP Nadda claimed that Rahul Gandhi has a huge arrogance but little understanding. Taking it to Twitter, Nadda made a series of tweets and alleged that lies, personal slander, and negative politics are integral to Gandhi’s politics.

He further wrote Gandhi has shown a pathetic and casteist mindset by comparing OBC communities to thieves, however, his latest tirade is not surprising.

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Rajya Sabha MP P Chidambaram on Friday said robust political discourse is the essence of democracy and the law ought not to be set in motion to silence leading voices of the democratic Opposition.

He further wrote a noisy appreciation of the might of the law must be tempered by calm introspection on the plight of democratic voices.

Rahul Gandhi is finding himself in the eye of the news cycle storm after a Gujarat court convicted him of defamation for his 2019 remark against Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rahul Gandhi faces up to 2 years in jail for taking the Prime Minister’s name along with IPL founder Lalit Modi and fugitive businessman Nirav Modi and wondering if all Modis are thieves. The complaint against Gandhi was filed by BJP leader Purnesh Ishvarbhai Modi at Adajan police station in Surat district.

While convicting Gandhi, Chief Judicial Magistrate HH Varma granted him bail for 30 days for him to file his appeal, which would be in a higher court.

It is a coincidence that if Rahul Gandhi had not ripped up a Manmohan Singh government ordinance to protect legislators (MPs/MLAs/MLCs) convicted of criminal offences from disqualification, he could have escaped this Surat court judgment unscathed. But since the ordinance was withdrawn by the Manmohan Singh government, a legal protection that could have saved him and others can be looked upon wistfully.

The United Progressive Alliance-II regime had been at the receiving end of Opposition assaults over perceived corruption scams including 2G, coalgate and the railway cases, implicating ministers of allies Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam and Rashtriya Janata Dal among others.

The general perception of those years was that the allies were responsible for the falling goodwill of the Congress minority government. Though multiple parties including the Aam Aadmi Party went on the offensive, the biggest gainer from the hit on the Congress was the BJP.

Possibly, the UPA bigwigs could read among the tea leaves what lay ahead of them. Rahul Gandhi’s trashing other ordinance happened in the first few weeks of September 2013 when then PM Singh was away in the United States. The highlight of the next week was Narendra Modi being chosen as the BJP’s PM candidate above veteran leader LK Advani. What happened hence is well-known.

The Rahul Gandhi-led march, the Bharat Jodo Yatra, had won some eyeballs at the man’s ability to pull off the march with relative elan. Following the Hindenburg Research report on Adani, the Congress had shown some verve and fight in a marked departure from the grand old party dismissal.

A remark from spokesperson Pawan Khera on Modi saw Delhi Police armed police haul him off a flight at Delhi airport in connection with three FIRs against Khera, one in Assam and two in Uttar Pradesh.

Observers had been upbeat on the Congress’s chances despite the “Aayega Modi hi” slogan and potential allies talking of a non-Congress, non-BJP alliance. The Surat court decision could spark greater opposition coherence since Arvind Kejriwal himself came out in support of Gandhi.