In another setback to BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, the Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a plea that urged the top court to direct the central government and the Election Commission to disqualify Congress President Rahul Gandhi from contesting the Lok Sabha elections till the issue of his citizenship is decided.
The latest development comes just days after the returning officer of Amethi declared the nomination papers of Congress President Rahul Gandhi valid.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court Bench headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi dismissed the petition that claimed that Rahul Gandhi had stated his citizenship as British while incorporating a company in the United Kingdom in the past. The petition was filed by two individuals, Jai Bhagwan Goyal and Chander Prakash Tyagi.
The bench, according to news agency PTI, bluntly told the petitioners.”If some company in some form mentions his nationality as British, does he become a British citizen.”
Soon after the complaint was filed before the returning officer in Amethi, Subramanian Swamy had taken to Twitter to express his excitement. Swamy’s tweet had read, “Buddhu has lost Amethi both ways: If disqualified on Monday then goodbye. If not then in the campaign he will be forced to answer questions galore about the truth of his citizenship and education for voters to defeat him.”
Swamy, who’s known to be a fierce critic of the Nehru-Gandhi family, had first questioned the citizenship status of the Congress president in 2015 in a complaint to the ethics committee of parliament. Since, then, he’s repeated his allegations on multiple occasions but has struggled to produce any evidence in support of his claims.