The 52-year-old Congress leader reached Surat in the afternoon via a scheduled commercial flight along with sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and proceeded to the sessions court.

He was convicted by a lower court here and sentenced to prison for two years last month for a speech in which he linked PM Modi's last name with two fugitive businessmen, remarking how the ''thieves'' shared the same last name.

The lower court had granted him bail for 30 days to appeal the verdict.

A day later, he was disqualified as a member of the Lok Sabha.