Thiruvananthapuram: With the Congress winning maximum seats from Kerala (15) followed by Tamil Nadu and Punjab, which have eight MPs each, the party may look at Kerala to pick its leader in the lower house.
If seniority is being considered, seven-time MP Kodikunnil Suresh could become the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and eventually the opposition leader of the House. If so, he will become the third from the state to get the post after A K Gopalan and C M Stephen.
The Congress has won 52 seats in the just-concluded Lok Sabha election. In the last Lok Sabha, the party had only 44 MPs and did not get the opposition leader’s post. This was due to the rule that a party needs 10% of the total seats (55) to get the opposition leader’s post. This time, though the Congress has won eight more seats, it is still short of three seats to stake the claim for the opposition leader’s post.
However, experts point out that the Congress can claim for the opposition leader post since the party is the single largest party in the opposition.
“There is no such rule that the opposition leader post should be given only to a party which has 10% members of the total strength of the House. When the Congress was denied the post in 2014, it should have gone to the court. The court should have upheld the right of the party for getting the opposition leader’s post,” said P D T Acharya, former secretary general of the Lok Sabha.
“The opposition leader post is a recognition given by the speaker and it is a statutory post. The Act clearly says that the numerically biggest party in the opposition will get the opposition leader post,” said Acharya.
The Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977, says: “leader of the opposition, in relation to either House of Parliament, means that member of the council of states or the house of the people, as the case may be, who is, for the time being, the leader in that House of the party in opposition to the government having the greatest numerical strength and recognised as such by the chairman of the council of states or the speaker of the House of the people, as the case may be”.
If seniority is being considered, seven-time MP Kodikunnil Suresh could become the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha and eventually the opposition leader of the House. If so, he will become the third from the state to get the post after A K Gopalan and C M Stephen.
The Congress has won 52 seats in the just-concluded Lok Sabha election. In the last Lok Sabha, the party had only 44 MPs and did not get the opposition leader’s post. This was due to the rule that a party needs 10% of the total seats (55) to get the opposition leader’s post. This time, though the Congress has won eight more seats, it is still short of three seats to stake the claim for the opposition leader’s post.
However, experts point out that the Congress can claim for the opposition leader post since the party is the single largest party in the opposition.
“There is no such rule that the opposition leader post should be given only to a party which has 10% members of the total strength of the House. When the Congress was denied the post in 2014, it should have gone to the court. The court should have upheld the right of the party for getting the opposition leader’s post,” said P D T Acharya, former secretary general of the Lok Sabha.
“The opposition leader post is a recognition given by the speaker and it is a statutory post. The Act clearly says that the numerically biggest party in the opposition will get the opposition leader post,” said Acharya.
The Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977, says: “leader of the opposition, in relation to either House of Parliament, means that member of the council of states or the house of the people, as the case may be, who is, for the time being, the leader in that House of the party in opposition to the government having the greatest numerical strength and recognised as such by the chairman of the council of states or the speaker of the House of the people, as the case may be”.
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