Congress workers on Friday held silent protests at 19 district headquarters in Gujarat against the conviction of Rahul Gandhi in a 2019 defamation case by a court in Surat, a party spokesperson said.

The Congress has instructed party workers to hold protests in all 33 districts in the state against the conviction and two-year jail term to Rahul Gandhi, he said.

The Surat court sentenced Gandhi to two years jail on Thursday but granted him bail and suspended the sentence for 30 days to allow him to appeal in a higher court. The defamation case had been registered against Gandhi for his 'How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname?' remark. The complaint against him was lodged by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA and former Gujarat minister Purnesh Modi. Gandhi had made the remark during a rally at Kolar in Karnataka on April 13, 2019, during the Lok Sabha elections campaign.

"Silent protests were held in front of the collector offices in 19 districts of Gujarat. We had issued a circular asking district units to stage demonstrations in all 33 districts of the states," Congress spokesperson Hiren Banker said.

In the remaining districts, protests will be held by this evening, he said.

The Congress has also decided to hold more protests on Monday, Banker added.

Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after he was convicted by the Surat court.

Gandhi, who represented the Wayanad parliamentary constituency in Kerala stands disqualified from the membership of Lok Sabha from the date of his conviction i.e. 23 March, 2023, the notification issued by the Lok Sabha Secretariat said.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Telegraph Online staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.