Rahul Gandhi disqualified: Cong stages protests in Nagpur, Chandrapur

Workers led by Maharashtra Youth Congress president Kunal Raut gathered at Reshimbagh Square and raised slogans against the prime minister and burnt tyres.

The Congress protested in Nagpur on the disqualification of its leader Rahul Gandhi as Lok Sabha MP on Friday.

Congress workers shouted slogans against the ''dictatorship'' of the Union government and burnt an effigy of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Medical Square here.

Gandhi, representing Wayanad parliamentary constituency in Kerala, was on Friday disqualified from the Lok Sabha a day after his conviction in a defamation case by a court in Surat in Gujarat.

Gandhi was on Thursday sentenced to two years in jail in a criminal defamation over his ''Modi surname'' remarks at a 2019 poll rally in Karnataka.

However, the Surat court also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court. Youth Congress workers staged demonstrations near the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's Dr Hedgewar Smriti Mandir Reshimbagh. Workers led by Maharashtra Youth Congress president Kunal Raut gathered at Reshimbagh Square and raised slogans against the prime minister and burnt tyres. Similarly, BJP workers, led by the party’s city chief MLC Pravin Datke, staged demonstrations against Gandhi at Variety square in Nagpur.

The Nagpur district congress committee will stage protests on Monday as per nationwide protests planned by AICC. Meanwhile, during a protest at Gandhi Chowk in neighbouring Chandrapur district, Congress MP Balu Dhanorkar claimed that Rahul Gandhi’s growing popularity has scared the Modi government. ''They will face defeat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. The Modi government took action against Gandhi due to the fear of defeat in 2024 and it is the official beginning of dictatorship,'' Dhanorkar said.