Rahul Gandhi arrives at the Parliament to address the gathering of Congress MPs after being disqualified from the Lok Sabha following his conviction in a defamation case in 2019 for his statement about the “Modi surname.” Rahul Gandhi, the leader of the Congress, arrived at the Parliament on Wednesday to attend the gathering of Congress MPs from the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha at the CPP office after he was expelled from the Lok Sabha following his conviction in a defamation case in 2019 for his remark about the “Modi surname.”

Sanjay Raut, the leader of the Shiv Sena’s Uddhav faction, also met with Rahul Gandhi. The meeting took place at a time when the Thackeray camp had decided to avoid the opposition gathering because of Rahul Gandhi’s comments regarding Savarkar. Rahul Gandhi said last week during a news conference that he will not apologise for his comments made on Indian democracy during recent trips to London. He said, “My name is not Savarkar, it is Gandhi and Gandhi never offers an apology”.

The BJP has requested an apology from Rahul Gandhi for his comments made during his visit to London, when he claimed that the institutions of India are being attacked on a large scale and that the structures of Indian democracy are under “brutal attack.” He had claimed that the Lok Sabha frequently “silenced” microphones against the opposition. On Wednesday, Sanjay Raut declared that his party will take part in the demonstration at the Parliament and that it gives the opposition-unity in Maharashtra and at the national level the highest priority.

“We have spoken about our concerns two days ago. We did not go to Kharge’s residence. But there is and will be opposition unity in Maharashtra as well as the country. We have got the result of the concerns we have expressed. We will definitely attend the opposition meeting today and will participate in the protest as well. We give the topmost priority to the opposition unity. We will be with all the opposition parties at the national level,” Raut said while speaking to the media, as quoted by ANI.

Raut slammed the Centre over the corruption scandal involving the Adani Group and questioned whether or not Adani would be excluded from the scope of the investigations conducted by the central authorities. “Why don’t you (government) talk about the issues raised by Rahul Gandhi and the JPC demand by the opposition on the Adani issue? What is your relation with Adani? Are the ED and CBI only for us (opposition), not for Adani? Will you do the audit of the PMCARES fund?” he said, as quoted by ANI. Rahul Gandhi’s exclusion from the Lok Sabha was supported by the Rajya Sabha MP, who also declared that his party would join the opposition’s protest in the House of Representatives.