NEW DELHI - India’s opposition leader, Rahul Gandhi, suffered a setback Friday after a high court dismissed his plea to suspend his conviction in a criminal defamation case.
The order by the Gujarat High Court means that Gandhi remains ineligible to run in next year’s national elections in which his Congress Party is the main challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party.
Gandhi was expelled from Parliament in March after he was sentenced to two years in jail in connection with remarks that alluded to Modi’s surname under a law that disqualifies a lawmaker facing a two-year or longer jail term.
A suspension of the verdict was crucial to reinstating Gandhi as a lawmaker and allowing him to run next year. Besides being disqualified, his conviction had also barred him from fighting elections for the next eight years unless the sentence is stayed, or he is acquitted.
“There are no reasonable grounds to stay conviction of the application in view of the facts and circumstances of the case," the Gujarat High court said in its order calling the conviction “just and legal.”
Reacting to Friday’s judgment, Congress Party leader, K.C. Venugopal, called Gandhi a fierce voice “that takes the Modi government head-on.”
“No force can silence him, the truth will triumph and justice will ultimately prevail,” he tweeted.
Gandhi will appeal to the Supreme Court, the Congress Party said.
Political analyst Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay noted that is the last legal option available to him.
“Legally the door is still open for Gandhi. I think the Congress Party knew that this will go all the way to the top court,” Mukhopadhyay said.
The defamation case was filed by a BJP leader, Purnesh Modi, in the prime minister’s home state, Gujarat, in connection with election rally in the run-up to the 2019 general elections.
"Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?" Gandhi said at the rally before going on to name fugitive Indian diamond tycoon Nirav Modi, banned Indian Premier League boss Lalit Modi, and Narendra Modi.
Purnesh Modi alleged the comments had insulted everyone with Modi as a surname. Gandhi had said his remarks were meant to highlight corruption and were not directed against any group. His supporters had called the case politically motivated.
Gandhi, who is out on bail, is the leading face of the Congress Party. While the party fared poorly in the 2014 and 2019 general elections, he has spearheaded efforts to rejuvenate it and improve its prospects for next year.
He undertook a mammoth 3,500-kilometer cross-country march that ended in January to connect with voters across the country. The party got a boost recently when it wrested power in the southern Karnataka state after defeating the ruling BJP by a huge margin.
Gandhi’s disqualification from Parliament has been widely slammed by most opposition parties, which accused the BJP of trying to undermine the opposition and of undertaking political vendettas.
“Politically this should help the opposition charge that this is a government that does not tolerate dissent, it is very repressive, so it gives a slight push to that narrative,” Mukhopadhyay said. “They can use it to their advantage."
BJP leaders say due judicial process has been followed.
The Congress Party and opposition parties have begun drawing up plans to mount a united challenge to the BJP in next year’s elections, hoping to improve their prospects of taking on Modi, seen as India’s most popular leader in recent decades.
“I think the Congress Party will do very well in the next election. I think it will surprise people," Gandhi said last month speaking at the National Press Club in Washington. "Just do the math, a united opposition will defeat the BJP on its own."
