• Rahul Gandhi to hold press conference today at 1 pm; first since disqualification

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    Rahul Gandhi to hold press conference today at 1 pm; first since disqualification

    Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will hold a press conference at his party's headquarters in New Delhi at 1 p.m., a day after being disqualified...


    Digital Desk: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will hold a press conference at his party's headquarters in New Delhi at 1 p.m., a day after being disqualified from the Lok Sabha due to a Gujarat court's conviction in the 2019 'Modi surname case'. The Surat court sentenced Gandhi to two years in prison, which it suspended for 30 days at the request of the political leader's legal team to enable him to file an appeal.


    However, the conviction meant Gandhi could be (and was) stripped of his parliamentary seat, and he will have to appeal to a higher court to have the conviction stayed in order to reverse the disqualification; the Congress' Abhishek Singhvi informed the Hindustan Times that a sessions court will be moved this weekend.


    Rahul Gandhi's press conference at 1 p.m. will be his first words in public since being booted out of Parliament, sparking massive protests from the Congress and senior opposition leaders, including Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.


    On Friday, Rahul Gandhi declared himself "ready to pay any price," and the day before (and after the court's verdict), he quoted Mahatma Gandhi as saying, "My religion is founded on truth and nonviolence. My god is truth, and the way I get to him is through nonviolence."


    Rahul Gandhi was disqualified after a court in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state (of Gujarat) ruled that a remark made in Karnataka's Kolar in 2019 was defamatory.


    Gandhi, addressing at an election rally, had mentioned wanted fugitives such as Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi, and wondered if all thieves have Modi as a common surname."


    Purnesh Modi, then a Gujarat minister and Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, promptly filed a case, and this week expressed his delight at the Surat court's decision.