Kolkata, 12 Jul: West Bengal Congress chief Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Wednesday held a silent protest here to express solidarity with party leader Rahul Gandhi, who was disqualified from the Lok Sabha.Sporting black bands on their arms, Chowdhury along with his party colleagues gathered at the Mahatma Gandhi statue at the Mayo Road-Dufferin Road crossing in the central part of the city and started the 'maun satyagraha'.

They will hold the demonstration till 5 pm, a party leader said.

Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha in March after he was convicted by a Surat court in Gujarat in a 2019 criminal defamation case.

The Gujarat High Court had on July 7 dismissed Gandhi's plea seeking a stay on his conviction in the criminal defamation case over his "Modi surname" remark.

Chowdhury, who is the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, had earlier written to Speaker Om Birla to hold a debate on the disqualification of Gandhi.