Assam Trinamool Congress President Ripun Bora has condemned the exclusion of MP Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha.
Bora in a statement claimed that this is a complete political vendetta to crush the opposition.
“Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) agenda is to establish only one party rule in India. But whatever they do, they won't succeed. The people of India will give a befitting reply to the BJP in the days to come,” Bora said in the statement.
All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) Chief Mamata Banerjee also criticized the BJP for allegedly targeting the opposition leaders for their speeches.
Taking to her official Twitter handle, Mamata Banerjee said, “In PM Modi’s New India, Opposition leaders have become the prime target of BJP! While BJP leaders with criminal antecedents are inducted into the cabinet, Opposition leaders are disqualified for their speeches. Today, we have witnessed a new low for our constitutional democracy.”
Earlier, the Lok Sabha secretariat in a notification issued on Friday read, “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.”
A day earlier, the Surat court convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and sentenced him to two years of imprisonment in a 2019 defamation case that had been filed against him over his alleged derogatory remarks on the “Modi surname”.
Later, the court granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.