The decision by the Lok Sabha, the lower house of India's legislature, comes a day after Gandhi was found guilty of defamation for a 2019 campaign trail remark implying that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a criminal.
Opposition leader and scion of the Gandhi family name was stripped of his parliamentary seat after he was convicted of defamation in Prime Minister Modi's home state of Gujarat for a 2019 campaign trail remark seen as an insult to the premier.
69-year-old former general who led a military coup in 2014 faces a challenging path back to the top with opinion polls putting him far behind two opposition candidates.
Opposition PTI leader takes a dig at the government and announces his multi-point plan that he says would pull the South Asian country out of the current economic crisis.
Voters will elect 125 members of parliament out of 258 candidates, put forward by three political parties or running independently, who all support President Serdar Berdymukhamedov.
First authorised protest since the lifting of Covid restrictions went ahead in China's self-governing territory under watch by police, who required organisers to cap the number of participants at 100.
European Union's Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell says Belarus' plan to host Russian nuclear weapons threatens European security and would merit further sanctions.
