Rahul Gandhi's conviction: Congress plans mass agitation, to meet President Murmu

The Congress on Thursday decided to take to the streets against Rahul Gandhi’s conviction and meet the President of India with other parties.

The main opposition party announced a mass agitation immediately after the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case and said it will not just fight the case legally but also politically.

In the wake of the verdict, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge convened a meeting of senior party leaders and MPs at his residence where after an hour of deliberations they decided to stage a protest at Vijay Chowk on Friday.

AICC general secretary Jairam Ramesh said the party will hold a meeting with other opposition leaders in the morning and would stage a protest march from Parliament House to Vijay Chowk.

The opposition parties have also sought time from President Droupadi Murmu on Friday afternoon to raise the matter with her.

Ramesh said the meeting at Kharge’s residence lasted around two hours and it was decided that the Party chief would hold a meeting with all Pradesh Congress chiefs and Congress Legislature Party leaders in the evening and plan agitations in states.

“We will hold protests across Delhi and in other states on Monday on this issue,” Ramesh said.

The matter is just not a legal issue, but also a serious political issue linked with the future of democracy in the country, he said.

“This is another major example of the Modi government’s politics of vendetta, threat and intimidation. We will fight it legally as well as politically. We will not bow down or be intimidated by such politics and will turn this into a major political issue,” Ramesh said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)