- Tuesday, April 30, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
While hot debate persisted in Indian politics over the disqualification of Indian National Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from the Indian parliament following his conviction by a court in the western state of Gujarat in a defamation case, another ‘Rahul Gandhi’ also faced a similar fate, The Indian Express reported.
The routine list of disqualified people under Section 10A of India’s Representation of the People Act, 1951, which was sent by the country’s election commission to the chief electoral officers in all states on Wednesday (29), a person named Rahul Gandhi K E featured, the report said, adding that he had also contested from Wayanad constituency of the southern state of Kerala, which the Congress leader won, in the 2019 general elections.
Rahul Gandhi K E, who reportedly is from Kottayam in Kerala, was disqualified from contesting elections on September 9, 2021, for three years, according to the list.
As per Section 10A, those who fail to lodge the account of poll expenses to the country’s election commission after contesting an election, are barred for a period of three years.
Rahul Gandhi K E, who was 33 in 2019, contested from Wayanad as an Independent candidate but unlike the Congress leader who received more than seven lakh (0.7 million) ballots, he could get only 2,196.
In fact, the fray in Wayanad also included a candidate by the name of Raghul Gandhi K who finished with a paltry tally of 845 votes.
The Congress’s Gandhi, who lost in Amethi the same year, bagged more than 64 per cent of the votes polled and defeated his nearest rival PP Suneer of the Communist Party of India by 4.3 lakh (0.43 million) votes.
When The Indian Express asked Rahul Gandhi K E about his disqualification, he said “I am not that Rahul Gandhi”.
