A BJP MP’s bid to terminate the Lok Sabha membership of Rahul Gandhi received a degree of institutional support on Friday with parliamentary affairs minister Kiren Rijiju declaring that the government would consult Speaker Om Birla on the way forward.

BJP parliamentarian Nishikant Dubey had on Thursday said he had submitted a notice for a “substantive motion” seeking the termination of Rahul’s Lok Sabha membership and his lifelong disqualification from contesting elections “for misleading the nation” in league with anti-India forces.

Rijiju also confirmed that the government had earlier decided to move a motion against Rahul for referring in Parliament to an unpublished book by former army chief Manoj Naravane and using objectionable language against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but put the plan on hold after Dubey submitted his petition.

“The government had decided to move a motion after the way Rahul Gandhi illegally mentioned an unpublished book and used objectionable language against the
Prime Minister,” Rijiju told reporters.

Rijiju said a substantive motion had since been introduced by Dubey as a private member’s initiative, prompting the government to temporarily drop its own proposal.

“Once the motion is admitted, a decision will be taken in consultation with the Speaker on whether to refer the matter to the Privileges Committee, the Ethics Committee, or bring it directly before the House for discussion. No final decision has been made yet,” he added.

With the Lok Sabha’s ethics and privileges committees yet to be constituted, sources indicated that the substantive motion against Rahul was likely to be taken up directly in the House.

While the demand to terminate Rahul’s membership could be a tall order — and one the government itself may not be keen to pursue to the end, given the risk of a political backlash — the rulingside plans to use the debate on the motion in the House to politically corner and censure the Congress leader, the sources said.

The Treasury benches are keen to counter the Opposition’s no-confidence motion against Speaker Birla. The Opposition’s principal charge against Birla is that he didnot allow Rahul to speak during the debate on the motion of thanks to the President’s address.

The first half of the budget session concluded on Friday. The motions against Rahul and Birla are expected to be taken up only after the Lok Sabha reconvenes on March 9 for the second half of the budget session.

Dubey on Friday posted on X his notice, which seeks the constitution of a parliamentary inquiry committee to investigate what he termed “unethical conduct” of Rahul and recommends the “rescinding” of his Lok Sabha membership.

Dubey accused Rahul of being the “ring leader” of the “Soros, Ford Foundation and tukde-tukde gang” and said he had sought the Speaker’s permission to raise the matter in the House. “Is the leader of the Opposition planning India’s partition for the sake of gaining power?” he asked.

In the notice, Dubey alleged that Rahul was an “active member” of the Ford Foundation, which he described as a “notorious entity” involved in destabilising governments through “regime change”. He called for an “urgent structured inquiry” into Rahul’s conduct with the aim of ensuring his “immediate expulsion” from the Lok Sabha.

The BJP later fielded former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to sharpen the attack. Prasad accused Rahul of embodying “anarchy” and showing “no respect for norms, parliamentary procedure, constitutional propriety or democratic traditions”.

“Tarnishing India’s democracy abroad has become his habit,” Prasad said, alleging that Rahul’s actions stemmed from his animosity towards Modi.