Congress top brass meets after Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament

New Delhi: Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge with party leaders Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and others during a meeting at AICC headquarters, in New Delhi, Friday, March 24, 2023, after Rahul Gandhi's disqualification from Lok Sabha following his conviction in a defamation case and over other issues. (PTI Photo/Ravi Choudhary)(PTI03_24_2023_000251A)

New Delhi:

The Congress’ top brass, including party chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former AICC chief Sonia Gandhi, met on Friday to deliberate on the party’s strategy going forward after Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha.

A meeting was already scheduled for Friday evening but after Rahul Gandhi’s conviction, top leaders assembled at 6 pm at the party headquarters with his disqualification being top of the agenda.

Besides Kharge and Sonia Gandhi, Congress general secretaries Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, K C Venugopal, Jairam Ramesh, Rajiv Shukla and Tariq Anwar, senior leaders P Chidambaram, Anand Sharma, Ambika Soni, Mukul Wasnik, Salman Khurshid and Pawan Kumar Bansal, among others, were also present at the meeting.

Sources said Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification and party’s strategy and plans for agitations were top of the agenda at the meeting.

Rahul Gandhi was on Friday disqualified from Lok Sabha following his conviction by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case, an action the party termed an attempt to “silence” his voice as it vowed to fight the battle legally and politically.