NEW DELHI — NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian opposition chief Rahul Gandhi is anticipated to look in court docket Monday to enchantment a legal conviction for mocking the Prime Minister’s surname that noticed Gandhi expelled from Parliament, dealing an enormous blow to his Congress Party forward of common elections subsequent 12 months.

Gandhi, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his predominant challenger within the 2024 polls, was ousted after a court docket sentenced him to 2 years in jail for defamation for mocking the surname Modi in a 2019 election speech.

The case in opposition to Gandhi, the great-grandson of India’s first prime minister and scion of the dynastic Congress social gathering, have been extensively condemned by opponents of Modi as the most recent assaults in opposition to democracy and free speech by a ruling authorities in search of to crush dissent. The velocity of his removing from Parliament shocked political circles in India, with many criticizing the motion as an assault in opposition to free speech.

Gandhi is flying from the capital, New Delhi, to Surat, a metropolis in India’s Gujarat state, immediately to look in a neighborhood court docket the place the opposition chief is anticipated to hunt a suspension or momentary keep of his conviction, his attorneys instructed the Press Trust of India (PTI) information company.

A person who shares the Prime Minister’s surname, which is widespread in his residence state of Gujarat, accused Gandhi of defamation over a 2019 speech during which he requested, “Why do all thieves have Modi as their surname?” Gandhi then referred to 3 well-known, and unrelated Modis, within the speech: a fugitive Indian diamond tycoon, a cricket govt banned from the Indian Premier League, and the prime minister. The petitioner who filed the case is a member of Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in Gujarat, however shouldn’t be associated to the prime minister or the opposite two Modis Gandhi invoked in his speech.

Gandhi was convicted on March 23 and expelled from Parliament the subsequent day, sparking opposition lawmakers to rally to his protection and name his expulsion a brand new low for India’s constitutional democracy. Gandhi was given bail for 30 days.

Under Indian regulation, a legal conviction with a jail sentence of two years or extra is grounds for expulsion from Parliament. If Gandhi’s conviction shouldn’t be suspended or overturned by the next court docket, he might face jail and can probably not be capable to contest nationwide elections in 2024.

Modi’s critics say India’s democracy — the world’s largest with almost 1.4 billion folks — has been in retreat since he first got here to energy in 2014. They accuse his populist authorities of pursuing a Hindu nationalist agenda, a cost his administration has denied. Modi’s authorities says its insurance policies profit all Indians.

Gandhi’s household, beginning along with his great-grandfather, Jawaharlal Nehru, has produced three prime ministers. Two of them — Rahul Gandhi’s grandmother, Indira Gandhi, and father, Rajiv Gandhi — have been assassinated.

Even although Gandhi is projected to be the primary challenger to the Modi authorities, his Indian National Congress social gathering has suffered humiliating defeats within the final two common elections. In a bid to woo voters, Gandhi has railed in opposition to Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party in latest months, accusing them of corruption and of tarnishing India’s democratic credentials.