Congress on Sunday staged a nationwide “Sankalp Satyagraha” in support of former party President Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha following his conviction and two-year prison sentence by a court in Gujarat’s Surat city in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

In national capital Delhi, the Congress kicked off its day-long protest at Rajghat and despite the Delhi Police denying permission for the protest, Congress top brass including chief Mallikarjun Kharge, general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, senior leaders KC Venugopal, P Chidambaram and Salman Khurshid took part in the Satyagraha.

Senior Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh, Mukul Wasnik, Pawan Kumar Bansal, Saktisinh Gohil, Jothimani, Pratibha Singh and Manish Chatrath were also present at the protest.

Several leaders of the party’s Delhi chapter also took part in the protest while a large number of party workers gathered outside the venue.

Addressing the protesters, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi said that the son of a martyr who walked thousands of kilometers for national unity, can never insult the country, referring to her brother Rahul Gandhi and her father Rajiv Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1991.

Priyanka also accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “insulting” Kashmiri Pandits by questioning why the Gandhi family doesn’t use the Nehru surname.

In Jammu and Kashmir, the Congress held a day-long ‘Sankalp Satyagraha’ in Srinagar with former Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC) chief Ghulam Ahmad Mir accusing the PM Modi-led ruling BJP of taking “illegal and undemocratic” to hush the opposition.

Scores of Congress workers and leaders also staged protests in various Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana, Punjab, Haryana and Gujarat.

In Rajasthan, the party’s state unit chief Govind Singh Dotasra, minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas and several other leaders participated in the protest at the Collectorate Circle.

Dotasra said the protest is against the Centre’s suppression of the opposition’s voice.

The Punjab and Haryana units of Congress also held a day-long satyagraha against the former Wayanad MP’s disqualification.

Both units held separate events at the state headquarters as part of the protest programme in which many senior leaders participated.

Talking to newsmen, Punjab Congress chief Amrinder Singh Raja Warring alleged that the action against Rahul Gandhi was taken because the BJP-led Centre was “scared” of his next speech in Parliament on the Adani issue.

In Gujarat, state Congress chief Jagdish Tahor, Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Amit Chavda and party leader Bharatsinh Solanki, along with Congress workers were detained by the police as they attempted to stage a protest at Ahmedabad’s Lal Darwaza.

The protesters were taken to the police stadium where they continued to shout slogans against PM Modi and the BJP.

In Jharkhand, senior Congress leaders including Jharkhand ministers—Rameshwar Oraon and Banna Gupta— assembled at Bapu Vatika at Morabadi ground in Ranchi to lodge their protest, claiming that the PM Modi’s BJP regime at the Centre is scared of Gandhi’s “vociferous voice” on Adani issue.

Meanwhile, the BJP tore into Congress for the satyagraha protest, accusing the grand old party of protesting against the nation’s Constitution the court’s verdict against Rahul Gandhi to justify his remarks against the “entire backward community” of the country.

Rahul Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a Surat court convicted him in a 2019 defamation case and sentenced him to a two-year jail term. The disqualification will prevent 52-year-old Gandhi, a four-time MP, from contesting elections for eight years unless a higher court stays the conviction.

Justice Printiker Diwaker on Sunday was appointed the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court. Uttar Pradesh Governor Anandiben Patel administered the oath of office to him at 11 am in the Chief Justice’s court.

The swearing-in-ceremony was attended by Chief Secretary Uttar Pradesh, Advocate General Ajay Mishra, Minister Suresh Khanna, Additional Advocate General MC Chaturvedi, Manish Goel, Neeraj Tripathi and other senior and junior lawyers.

The ceremony was also attended by the Justices of Allahabad and Lucknow benches and their family members and relatives of the Chief Justice and working judges of Madhya Pradesh.

Justice Diwaker started his legal career and was enrolled as an advocate in 1984. He was designated as Senior Advocate in 2005 after practising law in the Chhattisgarh High Court. Later, he also joined the Madhya Pradesh State Bar Council and became a member for seven years and a member of the Chhattisgarh State Bar Council for five years.

He was appointed as a judge of the Chhattisgarh High Court on March 31, 2009. In October 2018, he was transferred to the Allahabad High Court.

Justice Diwaker graduated from Jabalpur’s Durgawati University and dealt with criminal, civil, and constitutional matters during his legal career. He also worked as standing counsel for SBI, SAIL, Chhattisgarh Gramin Bank, Bank of Baroda, and others.

In a shocking incident for the entertainment industry, famous Bhojpuri actor Akanksha Dubey allegedly died of suicide in her hotel room in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi on late Sunday night. She was 25.

According to preliminary reports, Akanksha hanged herself in room number 105 of Hotel Sumendra in Buddha City Colony of Sarnath in Varanasi on late Sunday night. The Bhojpuri starlet was in the holy city in connection with the filming of her upcoming Bhojpuri movie Laayak.

As per reports, Akanksha Dubey was staying at Hotel Sumendra since arriving there at around 3:15 am on March 23 accompanied by her make-up artist Rahul Sharma, hair dresser Rekha Maurya and spot-boy Sanjay Yadav.

Akanksha—originally a resident of Parsipur, Thana-Chori in UP’s Bhadohi district—was currently residing in Basai area of Palghar district in Nalasopara, East Mumbai.

A senior police official said that on Sunday morning at 10 am, the young starlet’s make-up artist Rahul Sharma, received a call to bring Akanksha to the set of Bhojpuri film Layak which is being shot in Nati Imli area. However, Sharma received no response after knocking and ringing the doorbell of the actor’s room multiple times, following which he informed the hotel manager Ritesh Kumar Mehta.

The manager called via intercom to the room, however, when there was no response, he proceeded to unlock the door with his master key and found that Akanksha Dubey had committed suicide by hanging herself from the ceiling fan with a dupatta (scarf).

Ritesh informed the police who arrived at the scene and took custody of the body and started forensic investigation.

An official said the young actor’s motive behind the extreme step is yet unknown and is being investigated, adding that a case has been registered and more details will follow.

Akanksha Dubey was a popular name in Bhojpuri film industry. She made her debut with the film Meri Jung Mera Faisla and was also seen in Mujhse Shadi Karogi (Bhojpuri), Veeron Ke Veer, Fighter King, Kasam Paida Karne Ki 2.