 "Congress workers march in support of Rahul Gandhi after Gujarat HC verdict")
Himachal Pradesh Congress chief Pratibha Singh on Friday called "unfortunate" the dismissal of Rahul Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a defamation case by the Gujarat High Court, and said the fight for justice will continue on all platforms.
The Congress party is standing unitedly behind Rahul Gandhi and no conspiracy of the BJP against him will succeed. Truth cannot be defeated and every party worker from Himachal is with Rahul Gandhi in this fight," she said in a statement issued here.
Observing that "purity in politics" is the need of the hour, the Gujarat High Court on Friday dismissed Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.
In a setback to the 53-year-old Congress leader, Justice Hemant Prachchhak also noted that representatives of people should be "men of clear antecedent" and that a stay on conviction is not a rule, but an exception resorted to only in rare cases. There was no reasonable ground to stay the conviction, he added.
A stay on Gandhi's conviction would have paved the way for his reinstatement as a Lok Sabha MP.
Singh said the Modi government's "dictatorship" is creating political instability in the country and the "misuse" of constitutional institutions is a matter of serious concern.
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Meanwhile, party workers wore black armbands and marched in support of Gandhi in Rajasthan's capital city of Jaipur.
Rajasthan Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said, in a statement, state ministers Mahesh Joshi, Pratap Singh Khachariyawas, Govind Ram Meghwal, MLA Rafiq Khan, Congress leaders Archana Sharma, Pushpendra Bhardwaj, Archana Sharma, Pushpendra Bhardwaj, and Govind Ram Meghwal, participated in the march taken out from the state Congress headquarters to Sanjay Circle.