BJP Takes A Harsh Stand; Congress To Not Lead The Opposition

TIR, 12 June 2014: Narendra Modi’ government may abide by the rule stating that any party must have a minimum of ten percentage of the total seats in the Lok Sabha General Elections (i.e. at least 55 out of the total 543 seats), in order for it to be awarded the status of the Opposition Party. This decision by the Bharatiya Janata Party, which is the current ruling party of the Lok Sabha, meant that Congress would not be the Opposition Party and that none of Sonia Gandhi or her son Rahul Gandhi would be entitled to be the Leader of Opposition.

This decision from the BJP has come following the initial indications from Prime Minister Modi led government of the BJP that they may take a not-so-harsh approach on letting the Congress Party enjoy the benefits of being the Opposition Party, by letting Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her close associates preside in the first session of the 16thLok Sabha. To support the party’s decision, a senior leader of BJP was quick to comment that the Congress Party, on previous three occasions, had not let the other parties take the Opposition post after the latter had failed to earn 10% seats in the Lok Sabha.

Another minister of the BJP conveyed that the party was only following the rules laid by the first speaker of the Lok Sabha, Ganesh Vasudev Mavlankar. However, as the Congress Party is the one with the highest number of seats after the ruling party, the post of the Public Accounts Committee of the Parliament would be given to it. It has been known that no administrative problems have occurred before when there was no Leader of Opposition or the Opposition Party.

After the BJP had won with a clear majority in the Lok Sabha elections, it was seen in the recently concluded LS session that the Congress Party and the other parties, except the AIDMK and BJD, have started making up allies amongst themselves to challenge the ruling party and to conquer the office of the Opposition Party.