NEW DELHI: Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday replied to the Lok Sabha Secretariat’s notice to vacate his official bungalow and said he will abide by the eviction notice, even as his party leaders slammed the government, accusing it of humiliating him.
Gandhi was on Monday served a notice to vacate the government bungalow, allotted to him, by April 22 following his disqualification as a member of Lok Sabha after his conviction in a criminal defamation case last week.
In his communication to the LS Secretariat, Gandhi said,”thank you for your letter of March 27, 2023, regarding the cancellation of my accommodation at 12 Tughlak Lane. As an elected member of the Lok Sabha over the last four terms, it is the mandate of the people to which I owe the happy memories of my time spent here.”
“Without prejudice to my rights, I will, of course, abide by the details contained in your letter,” he said in his letter to the MS branch of the LS Secretariat which had sent him the notice.
The Housing Committee of the Lok Sabha took the decision following which the secretariat of the House served the notice on the former Congress president, a Z-plus protectee who has been living in the 12, Tughlaq Lane bungalow since 2005.
Meanwhile, the Congress on Tuesday announced over a month-long agitational programmes from block to national level, including a ‘Jai Bharat Maha Satyagraha’ here in the second week of April, to protest Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from Lok Sabha and to press their demand for a JPC probe into the Adani issue.
The agitational programmes include the ‘Loktantra Bachao Mashal Shanti March’ starting from Red Fort on Tuesday and a series of press conferences in 35 major cities across the country on March 28 and 29.
Addressing a press conference along general secretary in-charge Jairam Ramesh, AICC general secretary in-charge organisation K C Venugopal said in solidarity with Rahul Gandhi and in support of his uncompromising fight against the “loot of public and national wealth by the Modi-Adani nexus”, the party organised a one-day ‘Sankalp Satyagraha’ at Raj Ghat in New Delhi and in front of Gandhi statues, in all state and district headquarters on March 26.
He said Members of Parliament and MLAs/MLCs have protested in their respective
Houses and legislatures, wearing black attire and registered a strong protest against the “dictatorial regime”.
The party, at its meeting of the Steering Committee with PCC Presidents, CLP Leaders, National Heads of Frontal Organisations, Departments and Cells, presided by the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on March 24 2023, has decided that a series of agitational programmes will be held over the course of one month, Venugopal said.
A ‘Jai Bharat Satyagraha’ to protest the “erroneous” conviction and disqualification of Gandhi, and to express the Congress’ resolve to keep raising the voice of the people against the “blatant loot of people’s money” will be held from the block and madal levels to the national level, he said.
All block/mandal Congress units will hold ‘Nukkad Sabhas’ under the ‘Jai Bharat Satyagraha’ banner and address the public on relevant issues, Venugopal said, while on March 31, press conferences by state level leaders will be held in all district headquarters, on April 1 press conferences by district level leaders in all blocks/mandals, will be held.
