Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will be the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, party general secretary KC Venugopal announced on Tuesday.
Earlier today, Rahul Gandhi took oath as a member of the 18th Lok Sabha. The Congress leader held up a copy of the Constitution during the oath-taking and ended his oath with “Jai Hind, Jai Samvidhan” chants.
This will be the first time in ten years that there will be a Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. After the Lok Sabha election, the Congress had passed a single-line resolution to appoint Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of the Opposition in Parliament.
WHY WAS THERE NO LOP IN LOK SABHA FOR LAST 10 YEARS?
The post of Leader of the Opposition has remained vacant since 2014, as no opposition party has managed to secure 10 per cent of the seats.
Following the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance’s (UPA) defeat in 2014, the Grand Old Party was reduced to 44 seats in the Lok Sabha.
After the 2014 debacle, the ruling BJP government, through the appointed Speaker, declined to recognise the Congress party’s leader as the Leader of Opposition.
In 2019, although the Congress improved its seat tally slightly, it still fell short of the required 54 seats to claim the LoP position.
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