KOZHIKODE: The news of
disqualification of the Lok Sabha membership of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has come as a shock for the people of his constituency of Wayanad, who had elected Rahul with a spectacular margin of 4.3 lakh votes.
The condemnation of the decision was widespread as people cutting across political divides came forward to protest against the decision. Protest marches organised by Congress and UDF across the constituency reflected the general sentiments in the constituency.
Even Rahul’s rival candidate P P Suneer of the CPI told TOI that
disqualification of Rahul was anti-democratic and he hoped that higher courts would examine it and would intervene to make the needed correction.
“Though I have differences of opinion with the stand taken by Rahul Gandhi on various matters, I am with him in this issue. This is nothing but an attack on democracy. The court awarded him maximum sentence in the defamation case while there were other options available,” he said.
Thrissilery native O Johnson said that he couldn’t first believe the news. “I am deeply saddened and it should not have happened. How can the mandate provided by lakhs of people be annulled suddenly on the basis of a court verdict that too on the basis of a comment made in a speech?” he said. Johnson said he knew that Rahul was a good human being. “He is sincere, down to earth and highly spiritual. He has a streak of innocence which has helped his connect with people here,” Johnson said.
Traditional tuber farmer Shaji N M from Mananthavady said that Rahul’s disqualification was a matter of personal sadness for him as Rahul had come to his house to see his collection of indigenous tubers.
“He is one leader who loves to mingle with the common people and has no airs. One thing that I noticed was that he showed the willingness to hear everyone in the constituency whether they were affiliated to the Congress, CPM, IUML or BJP. If such a fate can befall on Rahul, politicians from other parties should take it as a message for them as well,” he said.
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Politicians disqualified in the past
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<p>Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified as a Lok Sabha member following his conviction in the criminal defamation case over his “Modi surname” remark.<br /></p>
<p>The RJD supremo was disqualified from the Lok Sabha after his conviction in the fodder scam case in September 2013. RJD also saw Jagdish Sharma, Anil Kumar Sahni, Anant Singh, Raj Ballabh Yadav and Ilyas Hussain getting disqualified as MLAs.<br /></p>
<p>AIADMK chief J Jayalalithaa was disqualified from the Tamil Nadu Assembly in 2014 after she was convicted in disproportionate assets case. She had to resign from the chief minister’s post. TM Selvaganapathy and P Balakrishna Reddy were also disqualified from TN Assembly.</p>
<p>SP leader Azam Khan was disqualified from the UP Assembly in 2022 after being sentenced to jail in a hate speech case. His son Abdullah Azam Khan was disqualified this year after his conviction over charges of attacking policemen.</p>
<p>Kuldeep Singh Sengar was disqualified from UP Assembly in 2020 following his conviction in a rape case. Rashid Masood, Bajrang B Singh, Vikram Saini, Khabbu Tewari, Ashok Chandel were others MLAs from UP to be removed from their posts.<br /><br /></p>
<p>Congress MLA Pradeep Chaudhary was disqualified from the Haryana Assembly in 2021 following conviction in an assault case. While Karnataka saw Vatal Nagaraj and Subhash Kalkur being removed, Kerala saw MLAs Jayarajan, PC Thomas, A Raja, Shaji getting disqualified.<br /></p>
<p>Under Section 8(3) of Representation of the People Act, a person convicted of any offence and sentenced to imprisonment for not less than 2 years will be disqualified from the date of conviction and remain so for another 6 years after release. </p>
<p>For an MP or MLA, disqualification will not take effect until 3 months from conviction date or if within that period an application for revision of conviction or sentence is brought, until the application is disposed of by court. </p>
<p>The immediate challenge before Rahul is to convince a higher court to quash his conviction in the criminal defamation case. Even if the conviction is not quashed but the sentence is reduced to less than 2 years, Rahul will manage to get his disqualification reversed.<br /><br /></p>
Mujeeb K, a resident of Sulthan Bathery, said that Rahul’s disqualification would be a setback for the development of the constituency as Rahul had stood by the district during the devastating floods and had made pioneering interventions in housing and healthcare.
Prashanth Rajesh, a coffee farmer, said that though some would say that the decision was technically correct, sentencing Rahul on the basis of remarks made in a speech was unwarranted and disqualifying him was yet another extreme step.
Wayanad witnessed a wave of protests in Kalpetta, Bathery and Mananthavady. Protesters tried to barge into the BSNL office. IUML also took out protest march at Bathery. Wayanad DCC has called for observance of black day on Saturday. A march would be held in Kalpetta.
Kerala: Wayanad Lok Sabha seat declared vacant, will there be a by-election soon?
