Rahul Gandhi Holds Roadshow During First Visit To Wayanad After Losing MP Status. WATCH

Rahul was accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi and a host of other senior leaders as Congress held a show of strength in Wayanad.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday held a roadshow called 'Satyameva Jayate' in Kalpetta in Kerala's Wayanad in his first visit to his former constituency after being disqualified as Lok Sabha MP. Rahul was accompanied by his sister Priyanka Gandhi and a host of other senior Congress leaders as the grand old party held a show of strength in Wayanad.

Thousands of people, including UDF leaders and workers, turned up on Tuesday at Kalpetta for the roadshow, where only the national flag was used instead of the party flags.

Gandhi arrived in Wayanad on a helicopter and then travelled to the venue on a truck even as thousands, carrying placards of his photograph, turned up to show their support for him.

State Congress president K Sudhakaran, AICC members and KPCC leaders also joined the former Congress chief. Rahul's last visit to Kerala's Wayanad was in February 2023 during which he addressed a public rally and trained his guns on Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Gautam Adani-Hindenburg row.

Last month, Gandhi was disqualified as a member of Lok Sabha, a day after he was sentenced to two years in jail by a Surat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case over his "why all thieves have Modi surname" remark. He has been granted bail in the case till April 13.

The former Lok Sabha MP from Wayanad had said "how come all thieves have the common surname Modi?" while addressing a rally in Karnataka ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election, targetting PM Modi over his last name which he shares with fugitive businessmen Nirav Modi and Lalit Modi.

If Gandhi fails to get his conviction reversed, his disqualification as an MP will stand and he will be barred from contesting elections for eight years. He has already been asked to vacate his government-allotted bungalow. After being granted bail last week, Rahul Gandhi called it a fight to save democracy against "Mitrakaal". "This is a fight to save democracy against 'Mitrakaal'. In this struggle, truth is my weapon, and truth is my support!" Gandhi tweeted.

The former Congress chief has repeatedly been taking the 'Mitrakaal' jibe at the Narendra Modi government amid the Adani row, accusing it of working to benefit its "crony capitalist friends". The Election Commission, while announcing the dates of Karnataka Assembly election, had said it would wait for the court's decision to hold a bypoll in Wayanad.