Patna: Senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday rubbished the contention that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi's conviction in a defamation case and the subsequent disqualification was linked to the latter's raising of the Adani Group issue.

Rahul Gandhi made the defamatory remarks way back in 2019, Prasad said.

Talking to reporters here soon after Gandhi's press conference in Delhi, Prasad also alleged that the Congress did not press into service its battery of lawyers to immediately obtain a stay on Gandhi's conviction by a Gujarat court with a view to “encashing” the issue in the upcoming assembly polls in Karnataka.

The former union minister also charged Gandhi with having been “abusive, not critical” in his utterances about the Modi surname which led to the defamation suit.

He asserted that the Congress leader had “insulted OBCs, an issue that will be taken up in all earnestness by the BJP across the country”.

PTI