Patna, March 24 Following the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from the Lok Sabha over his conviction in a criminal defamation case, Lalu Prasad's elder son and Bihar Cabinet minister Tej Pratap forecast that the chair in Delhi on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi is sitting will be shaken in 2024.
"The BJP knows that it will be wiped out from the Centre in 2024. I am forecasting that the chair of Prime minister Narendra Modi will be shaken in 2024... Mark my words," said the RJD leader and state Environment Minister.
"The BJP has opted for dictatorship in the country. The way Rahul Gandhi has been disqualified from the Lok Sabha is absolutely wrong. The BJP is going after all the opposition leaders, but people will give a befitting reply to them at the right time," Tej Pratap said.
"People are watching how the BJP is targeting and chasing our family members. They are afraid of opposition unity and hence they are targeting the leaders from the opposition camp," Tej Pratap added.
Congress MLA Shakeel Ahmed said: "The BJP is afraid of opposition unity. They know that they will ousted from power in 2024. Hence they are targeting the opposition leaders like Rahul Gandhi."
Meanwhile, senior BJP leaders Ravi Shankar Prasad and Giriraj Singh, who arrived in Patna on Friday evening, claimed that Rahul Gandhi has been penalised for what he did in the past, and it has nothing to do with the BJP or the Central government.
"The court had given time to Rahul Gandhi to apologise for his statement, but he refused to do so. It is an insult to the judiciary. The court has penalised him for whatever wrong he did in the past," said Union minister Giriraj Singh.
"Rahul Gandhi insults our democracy in foreign countries. If people vote for him, everything is okay. But if they don't, he claims that democracy of the country is under threat. This dual stand of Rahul Gandhi is not right," said Ravi Shankar Prasad.
On Friday morning, Rahul Gandhi was suspended from the Lok Sabha following his conviction in a criminal defamation case. The Lok Sabha Secretariat also declared his constituency in Kerala's Wayanad as vacant.
According to the Representation of the People Act, a lawmaker sentenced to imprisonment for two years or more shall be disqualified "from the date of such conviction" and remain disqualified for another six years after serving prison time.
On Thursday, a court in Surat found Rahul Gandhi guilty and sentenced him to two years in prison in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his remarks about Prime Minister Narendra Modi's surname. The Congress leader, however, was granted bail and his sentence was suspended for 30 days to allow him to appeal the Surat court verdict.
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