Ashish Ranjan
Rahul Gandhi asked to vacate govt bungalow: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been asked to vacate govt bungalow located at 12 Tughlaq Lane by April 22, days after he was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha. According to the rule, a disqualified parliamentarian is ineligible for government housing and has 30 days to vacate the official residence.
This was Rahul Gandhi’s fourth tenure in the Lok Sabha, having been first elected in 2004 from the Amethi constituency in Uttar Pradesh. In 2019, he lost the Amethi constituency to Union minister Smriti Irani, but he won the Wayanad seat in Kerala.
The Congress leader was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on March 23 after being convicted of criminal defamation and receiving a two-year sentence. According to Article 102 1(e) of the Constitution and Section 8(3) of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, a Member of Parliament may be disqualified if he or she is convicted of any crime and sentenced to two or more years in prison. The Housing Committee of the Lok Sabha served the notice to vacate the bungalow.
The disqualification was the result of a conviction in a criminal defamation case, in which a local court in Surat sentenced the Congress leader to a two-year term for a speech he made prior to the 2019 Lok Sabha election in which he questioned “how all thieves have Modi surnames.”
According to a senior official, cited by the news agency PTI, Gandhi may request an extension of his stay from the Housing Committee, which the panel may consider.The directorate of estates administers the General Pool Residential Accommodation (GPRA) Act, which governs the distribution of central government residences.
Following Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification, a political dispute has erupted between the Opposition, led by the Congress, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In the most recent development, opposition leaders wore black attire to the Parliament during the ongoing Budget session to protest the disqualification and reiterate their call for a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) investigation into the Adani-Hindenburg case.
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Through their protests, BJP leaders, including Union ministers Piyush Goyal, Dharmendra Pradhan, and party president JP Nadda, have accused the Congress of attempting to ‘validate’ the ‘offensive language’ used against other background classes (OBC).
