Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified as a Member of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction in the criminal defamation case over his 'Modi surname' remark, March 23.

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 Surat court convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Thursday 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”. The court granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court.

In the build-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha general elections, Gandhi had allegedly remarked, “how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?” during a public rally at Kolar in Karnataka. Based on it, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi had lodged a complaint against the Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad, Rahul Gandhi.

He had also last appeared before the court in October 2021 to record his statement in the case against him filed under the IPC sections 499 and 500, which deal with defamation.

Rahul Gandhi was an MP from the seat of Wayanad in Kerala.