Shimla (Himachal Pradesh) [India], March 26 (ANI): Congress party on Saturday staged nationwide protests over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha.

In Punjab, the Chandigarh youth Congress stopped the New Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi train at the Chandigarh railway station over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Parliament.

The former Wayanad MP was disqualified from the lower house of Parliament a day after he was convicted by a Gujarat court in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

Indian Youth Congress, the student wing of the Congress party held a protest in Shimla on Saturday afternoon against the Narendra Modi government.

The protesters took out a procession in the streets of Shimla city signifying the death procession of the BJP government.

Shouting slogans against the union government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, protesting youth alleged that there is no freedom of speech in India under the BJP regimeThe state vice president of the youth congress Jaivardhan Khurana said that disqualifying Rahul Gandhi as a Member of Parliament cannot suppress the voice of the people of India.

"This kind of attempt by the Union government is an attempt to throttle the voice of democracy in the country," Khurana said.

Meanwhile, in Bengaluru, Youth Congress workers decided to march to the metro station to be inaugurated by the Prime Minister.

The protestors were stopped when they were marching to the Visvesvaraya metro station near the City Civil Court in Bengaluru.

In Punjab, the Chandigarh youth Congress stopped the New Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi train at the Chandigarh railway station over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi from Parliament.

In Maharashtra, MVA MLAs stage a silent protest outside State Assembly against the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a member of Parliament.

On Saturday, while addressing his first presser post disqualification as Lok Sabha MP, he said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi led Central government was scared of his questions on Adani and that democracy was under attack.

Stating that he was not scared of threats, disqualification and prison sentences, Rahul Gandhi said that he will not "back down" from asking questions on the Adani stocks issue.

On Friday, Gandhi was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha, a day after a Surat court sentenced him to two years imprisonment in a defamation case filed against him over his 'Modi surname' remark.

In April 2019, he made the remark "how come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname" at a Lok Sabha election rally at Kolar in Karnataka. The court approved Gandhi's bail on a surety and stayed the sentence for 30 days to allow him to approach the higher courts.

The Congress party on Friday came down heavily at the Centre over the disqualification of Rahul Gandhi as a Lok Sabha member, calling it a "strangulation of democracy" while exuding confidence that the disqualification will be revoked through a stay on his conviction by a higher court.

Earlier on Friday, BJP National President JP Nadda criticized Rahul Gandhi for his remarks which led to his conviction from the Surat court followed by disqualification from Lok Sabha. (ANI)