Indian Congress leader Rahul Gandhi vacated his official residence in central Delhi on Saturday, the last day of the deadline following his disqualification as an MP of the lower house of the Parliament. Rahul Gandhi, and his sister and Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, have visited the bungalow twice since the morning. Mr Gandhi is likely to hand over the keys by 3 pm. The Lok Sabha Housing Committee, headed by BJP MP CR Patil, had sent him a letter asking him to vacate his 12 Tughlaq Lane bungalow, which he has been occupying since 2005, by April 22. Though he is required to move out according to protocol, Congress leaders have accused the Centre of political vendetta, reports NDTV.
A disqualified MP is not entitled to a government accommodation and gets a one-month period to vacate his official residence.
The Gujarat court had given him 30 days to file an appeal, which he did, and lost on Friday. This meant Mr Gandhi cannot be reinstated as MP for now.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) called the appellate court's decision upholding the lower court's conviction a "slap in the face of the Gandhi family", and said that the court proved that the law is equal for all and "there cannot be preferential treatment for any family".
The former Wayanad MP will now have to appeal in the Gujarat High Court or the Supreme Court against the Surat court's order to retain his Lok Sabha membership.
Earlier on April 3, the Surat Sessions Court granted bail to the Congress leader, who had filed an appeal following his conviction in the case.
Mr Gandhi, 52, was convicted by a court in Gujarat's Surat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, and sentenced to two years in prison in a 2019 defamation case for asking at an election rally whether people with the "Modi surname" were "thieves".
Last week, workers were seen moving around objects as two trucks lay parked outside 12 Tughlaq Lane.
Mr Gandhi, who agreed to vacate the house, has been swamped with offers for homes by party leaders. His office has said he will move to his mother Sonia Gandhi's bungalow in central Delhi's 10 Janpath.
Congress alleged the Centre is being vindictive in going after Mr Gandhi, but the BJP has accused Mr Gandhi 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.