Sonia Gandhi appointed Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson, Rahul Gandhi set to assume Leader of Opposition role

Congress leader Sonia Gandhi was unanimously elected as the chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party on Saturday.  The development came mere hours after the Congress Working Committee passed an resolution seeking the appointment of Rahul Gandhi as Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. The Lok Sabha has incidentally functioned without a Leader of Opposition since 2014 as no party managed to secure the requisite seats to assume the role.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge proposed the name of Sonia Gandhi for the post of chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party during the meeting. The proposal was seconded by party leaders Gaurav Gogoi, Tariq Anwar and K Sudhakaran.

“Sonia Gandhi ji has been unanimously elected as the Chairperson of the Congress Parliamentary Party," said Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pramod Tiwari.

The Congress defied analyst expectations to secure 99 seats in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections — becoming eligible to hold the LoP role for the first time since 2014. No Opposition party had managed to secure the role in the past 10 years as their tallies were below the requisite 10% of total seats in the House.