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After 10 years, Lok Sabha is going to get a leader of the opposition. Rahul Gandhi will take over the post of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha. This decision was taken in the floor meeting of Bharat Block leaders at the residence of Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday. However, even before this, the post of Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha has been vacant. This post was vacant in 1980, 1989 and from 2014 to 2024.
According to the rules, to become the leader of the opposition, any opposition party should have 10 percent of the total strength of the Lok Sabha i.e. 54 MPs. But in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, no opposition party had 54 MPs. Late BJP leader Sushma Swaraj was the leader of the opposition in the Lok Sabha for the last time from 2009 to 2014. But this time the Congress contested the elections under the leadership of Bharat Gathbandhan and won 99 seats.
Along with becoming the leader of the opposition here, Rahul Gandhi will get the status of a cabinet minister. This will not only increase his position in the protocol list, but he will also become a natural contender for the post of Prime Minister of the opposition in the future. This is the first time in his two and a half decade long political career that Rahul Gandhi will hold a constitutional post.
This will be the third time when a member of the Gandhi family will be in the role of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Earlier, Sonia Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi have also handled the responsibility of Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha. Sonia Gandhi served as the Leader of Opposition from 13 October 1999 to 06 February 2004. Apart from this, Rajiv Gandhi was also the Leader of Opposition from 18 December 1989 to 24 December 1990.
Rahul Gandhi, who turned 54 last week, is a scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family. He is a five-time MP and currently represents the Rae Bareli constituency in the Lok Sabha, which was previously held by his mother Sonia Gandhi. This time he won from two constituencies – Wayanad in Kerala and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh – but he resigned from Wayanad, where his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra will now contest. Rahul Gandhi entered politics in 2004 when he won from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh for the first time.
After becoming the Leader of Opposition, as per the Leader of Opposition in Parliament Act 1977, the powers and privileges of the Leader of Opposition are exactly the same as that of a Cabinet Minister. Now as the Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi will get an office like a Cabinet Minister in the Government Secretariat. A Cabinet Minister will get a high level of security as per his post and will get a monthly salary of Rs 330,000 and other allowances, which is much higher than the salary of a Member of Parliament. An MP gets around Rs 2.25 lakh per month including salary and other allowances.
