The proposal regarding Rahul Gandhi was discussed in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting held at a hotel in Delhi on Saturday. Former Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh Bhupesh Baghel and former Congress MP Phoolodevi Netam also attended this meeting.
Chhattisgarh Congress in-charge Sachin Pilot also shared his election experience with senior leaders. The CWC meeting lasted for about 3 hours at Ashoka Hotel in Delhi. The party MPs also passed a resolution to make Rahul Gandhi the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha. On this, Rahul said, ‘Give me time to think.’ This post has been vacant for the last 10 years.
The post of Leader of Opposition is vacant for 10 years
The post of Leader of Opposition has been vacant in the Lok Sabha for the last 10 years. In 2014, Congress got 44 seats and in 2019, it got 52 seats. After BJP, Congress got the highest number of seats. Still, Congress did not get the post of Leader of Opposition.
In fact, for the post of Leader of Opposition, any party should have 10 percent of the total seats in the Lok Sabha. That is, out of 543 seats, Congress needs 54 MPs for this. This time Congress has won 99 seats on its own.
In 2014, despite being the largest opposition party, former Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan refused to give the status of Leader of Opposition. Congress’ performance in the last Lok Sabha was slightly better, but even then it did not get 54 seats. Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary was made the leader of the Congress, but even then no one could become the Leader of Opposition.
Sonia Gandhi was elected leader of the parliamentary party
After the CWC, a meeting was held in the Central Hall of Parliament. Korba MP Jyotsna Mahant, Rajya Sabha MP from Chhattisgarh Ranjit Ranjan, Rajiv Shukla also attended this meeting. In this meeting, Sonia Gandhi was elected the leader of the Congress Parliamentary Party.
