After?Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray's jab at Rahul Gandhi's "My name is not Savarkar, it is Gandhi and I will not apologise"?remarks during a recent press conference,?Union Minister Hardeep Singh Puri too came down heavily at the Congress leader.

"You know the contribution of people like Savarkarji? As I said, you are getting an ass to run a horse's race," the minister reportedly said.?

Gandhi was disqualified from the Lok Sabha on Friday, a day after a court in Gujarat's Surat convicted him in a 2019 defamation case.

Addressing a press conference in Delhi over his disqualification, Rahul Gandhi on Saturday said, "My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone".

"They really deserve to do some serious introspection...People of India would judge them for what they are...Fight Court's action in the Court, you are invoking Mahabharat and Savarkar," Puri said, adding that the Congress leader should fight the "court's action in the court".

Meanwhile,?Members of Parliament?of various opposition parties, including Congress, TMC, BRS and SP, met at Parliament complex on Monday.?It has been reported that they assembled to discuss a strategy to take forward the Adani issue as well as Rahul Gandhi's disqualification matter in Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. ?

Some of the MPs?were seen wearing black clothes as a part of their 'save democracy' protest against?the Congress leader's disqualification.?

(With inputs from PTI)