Rahul Gandhi changes Twitter bio to ‘Dis’Qualified MP’

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi changed his Twitter bio to 'Dis'Qualified MP' on Sunday after being disqualified as a Member of Parliament from the Lok Sabha earlier this week following his conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 defamation case.

The Gandhi scion displayed 'disqualification' as a badge of honour on his social media account which is followed by 23 million people.

"This is the official account of Rahul Gandhi | Member of the Indian National Congress | Dis'Qualified MP," his bio now reads.

Rahul Gandhi has refused to apologise over his recent comments against the BJP and the RSS.

"My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone," Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Saturday responding to a query on repeated calls by the BJP seeking his apology over various issues.

Rahul Gandhi was disqualified on Friday, a day after a court in Gujarat's Surat convicted him in a 2019 defamation case.

The court also granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal to a higher court. His lawyers vowed to appeal the verdict in a higher court.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat also declared his constituency in Kerala's Wayanad vacant. The Election Commission can now announce a special election for the seat.

The disqualification also bars him from contesting polls for eight years unless a higher court stays his conviction.

Meanwhile, Congress held a day-long "Sankalp Satyagraha" at Delhi's Rajghat in protest against Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from the Lok Sabha.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders KC Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid were among the party's top brass taking part in the satyagraha at Rajghat.

Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Saktisinh Gohil, Jothimani, Pratibha Singh and Manish Chatrath were also present at the protest site.