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NEW DELHI: After former PM Indira Gandhi, Rahul is the second from the Gandhi-Nehru family to have been disqualified from Lok Sabha, while his mother Sonia escaped being unseated by quitting.
Indira lost her seat after Justice Jagmohan Lal Sinha of the Allahabad high court upheld a petition of her opponent, veteran socialist leader Raj Narain, who had accused her of using electoral malpractices in Rai Bareli LS constituency. The verdict unleashed an upheaval, leading to the imposition of the Emergency and drastic changes in the Constitution, including one which put the election to the Prime Minister, the President and the Speaker beyond judicial scrutiny.
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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>
Sonia Gandhi also risked being disqualified for holding an office of profit: one of the counts laid down under the Representation of People Act for disqualification.
Earlier, Jaya Bachchan of Samajwadi Party had lost her seat on the same ground. SP blamed Jaya’s woes on Sonia and launched a campaign seeking her disqualification. However, Sonia, then the Congress president and UPA chairperson, managed to dodge the fate by resigning. She won the subsequent by-poll and resumed as an LS member.
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