After Court Setback, Rahul Gandhi To Vacate Bungalow On Saturday: Sources

Hours after a Gujarat court rejected Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's request to pause his conviction in the "Modi surname" defamation case, which led to his disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP, he has decided to leave his official bungalow in central Delhi's Tughlaq Lane on Saturday morning, people with direct knowledge of the matter told NDTV.

Sunday is the deadline set by the Lok Sabha housing panel for Mr Gandhi, 52, to vacate the house.

Mr Gandhi got a notice to vacate the bungalow on March 27 after he was convicted and sentenced to two years in a defamation case by a court in Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for asking at an election rally whether people with the "Modi surname" were "thieves".

The Lok Sabha housing panel sent the eviction notice to Mr Gandhi after his disqualification since a convict sentenced to two years cannot be an MP, according to a Supreme Court order, and by extension, he can no longer stay in the bungalow where he has been occupying since 2005.
 
The Gujarat court had given him 30 days to file an appeal, which he did, and lost today. This meant Mr Gandhi cannot be reinstated as MP for now.
 
His decision to leave the bungalow finally came after the latest court setback, people with knowledge of the matter told NDTV, asking not to be identified.
 
Last week, workers were seen moving around objects as two trucks lay parked outside 12 Tughlaq Lane.
 
Mr Gandhi, who has agreed to vacate the house, has been swamped with offers for home by party leaders. His office has said he will move to his mother Sonia Gandhi's bungalow in central Delhi's 10 Janpath.
 
To the Congress's allegations of "vindictiveness" over the eviction notice last month, the BJP had responded with an accusation of "melodrama". "You know the lines of propriety, what is acceptable in the political system, the legal system. He (Rahul Gandhi) has been convicted by a court. Then, there are automatic procedures," Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said, alluding to Mr Gandhi's disqualification.