The BJP Thursday hailed a Surat court's decision to reject Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's plea for a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case as a "victory" of the judiciary and the people.

Hitting out at the Congress, BJP national spokesperson Sambit Patra said the court's decision is "a blow" to the arrogance of the Gandhi family, "especially Rahul Gandhi." "It's a slap on Gandhi family's arrogance...Gandhi family had thought that they can get away after abusing backward classes. But that did not happen," Patra claimed.

The court's decision proves that law is equal for everyone, he said at a press conference here.

A court in Gujarat's Surat city on Thursday rejected Gandhi's application for a stay on his conviction in a criminal defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.

The court of additional sessions judge R P Mogera rejected the application which, if allowed, could have paved the way for Gandhi's reinstatement as a Member of Parliament.

With the court's decision, one thing is clear that "there is the rule of Constitution in this country, not the family. And there can't be a preferential treatment for any family," Patra said, recalling that Congress MP Pramod Tiwari had said that the Gandhi family should be treated differently by the law.

"This is the victory of the common people of India and the backward classes. This is also a huge victory of the judiciary," the BJP spokesperson said, adding, "There is a festive atmosphere in the country." Patra alleged that the Congress was "mobilising its ecosystem" after Gandhi's conviction in the case last month "to carry out a movement against the judiciary and even got statements issued against India".

"The Congress ecosystem created an atmosphere that there was bias against Gandhi in the trial court judgment," the BJP spokesperson alleged.

Slamming the Congress for raising questions on Gandhi's conviction, Patra said, "Judiciary today said no matter how much pressure politics you resort to, we won't buckle." "Today, two entities have been defeated. One is the arrogance of the Gandhi family and the entire ecosystem which comes out on the streets in defence of the Gandhi family. This ecosystem includes some very big people in the country and abroad who swiftly come out in defence of the Gandhi family's arrogance," the BJP spokesperson added.

The 52-year-old Congress leader was elected to the Lok Sabha from Wayanad in Kerala in 2019. He was disqualified a day after the lower court sentenced him to two years in jail on March 23 in connection with the case filed by BJP MLA Purnesh Modi. Patra said the trial court, before delivering its judgement in the defamation case, had given a chance to Gandhi to apologise for his remark but the Congress leader replied "the word sorry was not in his dictionary".

"Rahul ji you apologised before the Supreme Court. So don't say the word sorry is not in your dictionary," Patra said, asking Gandhi to give up "arrogance" and apologise to the OBC community for his remark.

Asked about the opposition party attacking the BJP for not including the party's South Bengaluru MP Tejasvi Surya in the list of star campaigners for Karnataka polls, Patra said the Congress should rather be concerned about Gandhi.

"Unsolicited advice (to Congress) from me is please don't put a lot of your thought on what BJP is doing," he said.

"Rahul Gandhi is yet again exposed in front of people of Karnataka and India. The way he had attacked the OBC community, the court did not deem fit to reduce his sentence which shows that Congress today is a worried lot," Patra added.

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