Decode Politics: Why an LoP post after 10 years, and why it matters

After 10 years, the Lok Sabha will have a Leader of the Opposition, with the Congress winning 99 seats in the recent general elections. On Tuesday evening, following a meeting with INDIA bloc leaders at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence, the Congress named senior leader and MP Rahul Gandhi for the post.

Parliament did not have an LoP the past two Sessions as no Opposition party had members equalling one-tenth of the total Lok Sabha strength, which has by practice been required to qualify for the post. While the Congress won 44 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, in 2019, it won 52.

Instead, Kharge, then a Lok Sabha MP, was recognised as the Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha after the 2014 elections, and the same was accorded to Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in 2019. By virtue of that, the two were part of several selection panels requiring the presence of the LoP.

At a meeting on June 8, the Congress Working Committee passed a unanimous resolution asking Rahul to accept the LoP post, now that the party had the numbers for it. On Wednesday, an official notification from Parliament said Rahul had been recognised as the Lok Sabha LoP by the Speaker.

In a post over his appointment, Rahul thanked Kharge and the Congress’s “Babbar Sher” workers “from across the country for their overwhelming support and warm wishes”. “Together, we will raise the voice of every Indian in Parliament, protect our Constitution, and hold the NDA government accountable for their actions,” he wrote on X.

The post officially came into being through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977. The Act describes the LoP as a “member of the Council of States or the House of the People, as the case may be, who is,