Ending days-long speculations, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was appointed the Leader of Opposition in the 18th Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The decision was taken at a meeting of the floor leaders of the INDIA bloc parties in Delhi.
"Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson (Sonia Gandhi) wrote to Pro-tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab, informing him of the decision to appoint Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha," senior party leader K.C. Venugopal told reporters after the meeting.
The Congress, being the single largest opposition party, gets the post of opposition leader after a gap of 10 years. It had failed to get the 10 per cent members required in the Lok Sabha to secure the post in the last two elections.
Rahul has been an MP for five terms and currently represents the Rae Bareli constituency in the Lok Sabha.
Earlier this month, the Congress Working Committee had adopted a resolution requesting Rahul to take the mantle of the Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha.
The CWC said Rahul has to be singled out largely because of the Bharat Jodo Yatra and the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra that he designed and led.
"Both these Yatras that reflected his own thinking and personality were historic turning points in our nation's politics and instilled hope and confidence in lakhs of our workers and crores of our voters," the resolution said.
The announcement of Rahul’s appointment came on the eve of the historic elections to the post of Lok Sabha Speaker, where the opposition has fielded Kodikkunnil Suresh against the NDA’s Om Birla.
The INDIA bloc claims that they would have supported a consensus candidate if the government had agreed to their demand for the Deputy Speaker post.
With the NDA having 293 MPs in its kitty and the INDIA bloc 233, numbers clearly favour Birla in Lok Sabha, which currently has 542 members after Rahul Gandhi resigned from one of the two seats he was elected from. At least three independent members also support the opposition.
