Kolkata/IBNS: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is an arch-rival of the country's governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has called the disqualification of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi from Lok Sabha "a new low for our constitutional democracy".

Mamata, who is politically maintaining distance from Congress, backed the grand old party in a tweet which reads, "In PM Modi’s New India, Opposition leaders have become the prime target of BJP!

"While BJP leaders with criminal antecedents are inducted into the cabinet, Opposition leaders are disqualified for their speeches. Today, we have witnessed a new low for our constitutional democracy."

Rahul Gandhi was on Friday disqualified from Parliament's lower house Lok Sabha in view of his court conviction in a defamation case over the Modi surname remark.

Rahul was on Thursday convicted by a court in Gujarat's Surat city in a criminal defamation case over his past remark referring to the surname Modi.

Later, the Congress leader got bail.

He was convicted under the IPC Section 504.

Rahul might end up facing a maximum punishment of imprisonment for two years.

During the 2019 Lok Sabha poll campaign, Rahul had said, "How come all the thieves have Modi as the common surname."

A complaint, which was lodged by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Purnesh Modi, had claimed Rahul had defamed the entire Modi community.