Rahul Gandhi has accepted a resolution by the Congress Working Committee to assume the role of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, taking on the ruling BJP-led NDA. The statement on Tuesday comes only hours before the first major struggle of the 18th Lok Sabha, for the office of Speaker, between a resurgent opposition and a weakened government alliance.
After being denied an assurance that an opposition member would be appointed Deputy Speaker, as is customary, the Congress and the INDIA bloc decided to force an election for Speaker at the last minute by running K Suresh against the BJP’s nominee, Om Birla, who was Speaker in the previous Lok Sabha.
While Wednesday’s election, the first for the Speaker’s position in decades, is likely to be purely symbolic because it requires a simple majority of 272 MPs and the NDA, which has 293 MPs on its own, has also received the support of the YSR Congress’ four MPs. This move is about the opposition signalling that things in Parliament will not remain as they were in 2014 and 2019.
The decision to make Rahul Gandhi, arguably the Congress’ most popular face, Leader of the Opposition is also viewed as a step in that direction, as it is the first time since 2014 that any opposition party has managed to cross the 54 (10% of the Lok Sabha’s strength) threshold required to stake claim to the post. Aside from gaining cabinet rank, Mr Gandhi’s appointment as Leader of the Opposition will allow him to take a strong stance on people’s issues and the INDIA bloc at a time when opposition parties are at their strongest in a decade.
These are expected to include alleged paper leaks in various examinations, such as NEET-UG, which has sparked massive demonstrations across the country, as well as the Agnipath system for Army recruitment, which has emerged as a key election issue.
Mr Gandhi, as Leader of the Opposition, will sit on critical panels alongside the Prime Minister, such as those tasked with selecting Election Commissioners and the CBI director. The constitutional position will also allow him to meet with visiting heads of state to provide his perspective on national issues.
The decision to pick Mr Gandhi for the post was announced after a meeting of floor leaders of the INDIA bloc at Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence on Tuesday night.
“Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson (Sonia Gandhi) wrote a letter to Pro-Tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab, informing him of the decision to appoint Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Other office bearers will be decided later,” senior party leader KC Venugopal said.
According to sources, despite the date of the news, the Congress’ allies were not notified of the decision during the INDIA meeting.
On June 8, four days after the Lok Sabha election results were released, the Congress Working Committee, the party’s top decision-making body, endorsed a resolution calling for Rahul Gandhi to be nominated Leader of the Opposition.
Commending his role in the Lok Sabha elections, the resolution also said, “Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi 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 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.”
Mr Gandhi was allegedly hesitant to accept the position, but he eventually succumbed to the party’s demands and was encouraged to do so by his mother Sonia Gandhi and sister Priyanka Gandhi.
He had also been cautioned, in jest, by Congress President Kharge that if he did not follow the Congress Working Committee’s decision, disciplinary action would be taken. This was confirmed by Mr Gandhi himself, who stated that “a threat has been made” while the party announced that he would be giving up the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat and Priyanka Gandhi will contest from there.
Despite having served in Parliament since 2004, Rahul Gandhi will be appointed to his first constitutional appointment. According to reports, he was asked to join the Cabinet between 2004 and 2014, when the UPA was in power under then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but he declined.
Mr Gandhi became Congress president in 2017 and resigned after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, accepting moral responsibility for the party’s poor performance. The Congress had won only 52 seats, up from 44 in 2014, while the BJP had won 303.
For much of his career, Mr Gandhi has been regarded as a less-than-serious politician, particularly in comparison to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s reputation of a tireless worker and campaigner. However, the public opinion of the Congress leader began to shift following the 4,000-kilometer Bharat Jodo Yatra in 2022-23 and the 6,000-kilometer Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra earlier this year.
This was reflected not only in the Congress’ considerably improved tally of 99 seats in the recently ended elections, but also in Mr Gandhi’s victories in both the Rae Bareli and Wayanad Lok Sabha constituencies by margins of more than 3.5 lakh votes.
The INDIA alliance, which includes the Samajwadi Party, the Trinamool Congress, and the DMK as significant constituents in the Lok Sabha, won 232 seats to the BJP’s 240 and the National Democratic Alliance’s 293.
