New Delhi: The Lok Sabha Secretariat has restored the membership of Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi after the Supreme Court on Friday stayed his conviction on the ‘Modi surname’ remark case.
The House secretariat issued a notification revoking his disqualification on Monday, 137 days after he was disqualified on March 24.
Gandhi will now be back in the Lok Sabha, representing his constituency Wayanad. INDIA bloc leaders celebrated the occasion with sweets.
Gandhi was disqualified from the lower house of the Parliament in March this year after he was sentenced to two years in jail by Gujarat’s Surat court in a criminal defamation case involving his 2019 remarks during a rally in Karnataka’s Kolar.
He had remarked why ‘all thieves had the surname Modi’. As per the law, MPs and MLAs sentenced for at least two years automatically lose their House membership.
The Congress was planning to move the Supreme Court on Monday if the Parliament fails to revoke the disqualification imposed on Gandhi.
The party on Saturday reiterated its demand for immediate restoration of Rahul Gandhi’s Lok Sabha membership, citing the Supreme Court’s suspension of his conviction, which reinstated his status as MP.
“Twenty-six hours have passed since the SC stayed Rahul’s conviction. Why has not his position as MP been restored yet?” said AICC general secretary organisation Jairam Ramesh.
He also asked if the PM was afraid of Rahul’s participation in the no-confidence motion on Manipur listed for discussion in the Lok Sabha on August 8 and 9.
Congress leader in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury had said that he had sent all the documents pertaining to the restoration of Rahul’s LS membership to Speaker Om Birla.
With inputs from agencies