Rahul Gandhi to start Karnataka campaign from site of 2019 remark on PM

Rahul Gandhi of the Congress Party will launch his Karnataka campaign next month ahead of the state elections on May 10. The April 5 rally will be held in Kolar, where Mr Gandhi made the remark about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname that led to his two-year prison sentence and disqualification from parliament.

The state chief DK Shivakumar “Rahul Gandhi will return to Kolar and begin his Satyameva Jayate Rally. We had requested him to begin the election yatra from here. Where he had made this statement, and which the BJP condemned his statement, he will begin his mega rally from here.”

Gandhi had said at a rally in Kolar in the run-up to the 2019 elections, “How come all thieves have the common surname Modi?” in an apparent dig at the Prime Minister, referring to fugitive businessmen Lalit Modi and Nirav Modi.

The BJP, however, saw it as an insult to Other Backward Classes, and Purnesh Modi, a party leader from Gujarat, filed a case. Mr Gandhi has refused to retract his remark. He was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, sparking a massive opposition outcry.

Leaders from 18 opposition parties have slammed the government, which the Congress sees as a “silver lining” and a catalyst for unifying the opposition ahead of the general election next year.