Rahul plea against his conviction ready; BJP dubs delay 'intentional'

Disgraced Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi is all prepared to approach the High Court challenging his conviction by a Gujarat court in the 2019 criminal defamation case. His draft petition is ready and he will file his plea in a day or two, according to a PTI report.

Meanwhile, ruling BJP has charged the Congress legal team of intentionally delaying the process to capitalise on the upcoming Karnataka election. The party highlighted that there was immediate action when Congress leader Pawan Khera was arrested but not after Gandhi's conviction.

Responding to the criticism, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said that the legal team was working on it. "We know where to appeal. We know when to appeal as we have 30 days' time. Rest is being looked after by the legal team. BJP's allegations are baseless," Ramesh sought to clarify.

A trial court in Surat has convicted Gandhi in a criminal defamation case on March 23 and sentenced him to two years in jail for dubbing everyone with Modi surname a 'thug'. The two-year jail term triggered his disqualification as a Lok Sabha member from the date of the delivery of the verdict. Gandhi was granted bail to allow him to appeal to a higher court within a month.

Meanwhile, the Election Commission of India has said that they are not in a hurry to declare a by-election in Kerala's Wayanad parliamentary constituency which fell vacant after Gandhi's disqualification as member of the Lok Sabha.

Addressing a press conference, Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar said the court has given Gandhi 30 days' time to seek a judicial remedy in the matter. ''There is no hurry. We will wait to do it before exhausting that particular remedy which the trial court had accorded. We will take a call after that,'' CEC Kumar said.

The vacancy for the Wayanad parliamentary seat was notified on March 23 this year and as per law, a by-poll has to be conducted within six months. ''According to Section 151 of Representation of People Act, whenever there is a vacancy, a by-poll has to be announced within 6 months from the date of notification of vacancy. In this case, it was March 23, so we have six months,'' he explained.