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Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who was disqualified as a Lok Sabha MP last month after his conviction in a defamation case, vacated his official bungalow at 12, Tughlaq Lane in New Delhi on Saturday and said that “it was a price he paid for speaking the truth.”
“People of Hindustan gave me this house for 19 years, I want to thank them. But the house was snatched away from me. Nowadays there a price for speaking the truth. I am ready to pay any price for speaking the truth…,” he said, reports The Indian Express.
When asked where he would stay after vacating the house, the Congress leader said, “I’ll stay with the ex-Congress president (Sonia Gandhi) at 10 Janpath for some time, then we’ll figure out something.”
Gandhi handed over the keys of the bungalow to officials from the Lok Sabha Secretariat on Saturday. April 22 was the last day for him to vacate the bungalow post disqualification.
On Friday, he had moved out his belongings from the house. As of now, he is living with his mother Sonia Gandhi and looking for a house.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said that Gandhi vacating the bungalow was an “exemplary gesture”.
“Today Rahul Gandhi vacates his home at TughlaqLane in response to the LokSabha Secretariat’s order. The Court gave him 30 days to appeal & the HC or SC could still reinstate him, but his exemplary gesture to move out shows his respect for the rules. #Respect #MeraGharAapkaGhar,” Tharoor wrote on Twitter.
In his letter to the Lok Sabha Secretariat agreeing to vacate the bungalow, Gandhi had written, “As an elected member of the Lok Sabha for the last 4 terms, it is the mandate of the people to which I owe the happy memories of my time spent here.”
He added, “Without prejudice to my rights, I will, of course, abide by the details contained in your letter.”
As an MP, Gandhi used to represent Kerala’s Wayanad in the Lok Sabha. On March 23, a Surat court convicted Gandhi of defamation and gave him a two-year sentence, leading to his disqualification from the Lower House.
He challenged the magisterial court order in the sessions court in Surat which rejected his appeal to set aside the conviction.
The Congress has now said the sessions court order will be challenged in the Gujarat High Court next week.
