On 8 June, the Congress Working Committee (CWC) unanimously passed a resolution, requesting Rahul Gandhi to take charge as the LoP.
The Congress did not have the required 10 percent of the total MPs in the Lok Sabha and was ineligible for appointing the Leader of Opposition in 2014 and 2019 when it won 44 and 52 seats, respectively. However, in this general election, 99 candidates fielded by the Congress emerged as winners.
Between 2014 and 2019, Kharge was the Congress’s floor leader in the Lok Sabha. In the second term of Narendra Modi as Prime Minister from 2019-24, Congress’s Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, who lost the elections this time, performed the role.
After the CWC resolution, Rahul, earlier this month, said he was yet to make up his mind. Congress sources also maintained that he wanted to think it through before any decision because, as the party’s face, Rahul also needed to focus on strengthening its organisational presence across the country.
Rahul was first elected an MP in 2004 and then declined a ministerial position in the United Progressive Alliance II that took office in 2009, saying he wanted to focus on enhancing the participation of the youth in the country’s politics.
As the LoP, he will attend key meetings, including those deciding the appointment of the Chief Election Commissioner and the CBI Director. In the case of the CEC, Prime Minister Modi and a cabinet minister will also attend the meeting. In case of the CBI director’s appointment, the PM and the Chief Justice of India will be in attendance, as well.
The Congress’s announcement on appointing Rahul as the LoP came on a day the Opposition decided to force an election to the Lok Sabha Speaker’s post — the third in India’s independent history — fielding Congress MP Kodikunnil Suresh as its nominee against the National Democratic Alliance’s (NDA) Om Birla, who held the post in the 17th Lok Sabha.
Barring the Trinamool Congress, which said it was not consulted before the announcement on fielding Suresh, the INDIA bloc parties rallied behind the decision. In the evening, TMC MPs Kalyan Banerjee and Derek O’Brien attended a meeting of the INDIA bloc leaders at Kharge’s residence on the Speaker’s election.
The Congress also issued a three-line whip, asking all its Lok Sabha MPs to remain present Wednesday in the House.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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