Taking a swipe at Rahul Gandhi, Union minister Anurag Thakur said on Saturday that for the Congress, one person is above the country, Parliament and courts, and added that even some allies of the opposition party were deserting it due to this attitude.

Talking to reporters here, the Union information and broadcasting minister also targeted Gandhi over a host of Congress leaders, including chief ministers, accompanying him to a court in Gujarat to file an appeal against his conviction in a criminal defamation case.

The fact is that it did not even require his presence to file the appeal, Thakur said and charged that he tried to put pressure on the court.

Following his conviction and two-year jail sentence in the defamation case of 2019 over his Modi surname remark, Gandhi was disqualified from Lok Sabha last month.

Gandhi should have apologised for insulting the backward classes but he chose otherwise and his arrogance has come to the fore once again, Thakur said.

For the Congress, one person is above the country, Parliament and courts. Even the allies of the Congress were leaving them due to this attitude, Thakur claimed.

He said his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) fights every election under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the people of Himachal Pradesh will ensure its victory in all four Lok Sabha seats in the state in the upcoming elections.

He listed various central projects in Bilaspur such as the premier healthcare facility AIIMS.

The Union minister said Rs 1,000 crore has been released this year for the Bhanupali-Bilaspur rail line.

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