Congress can't get leader of opposition post in Lok Sabha: Attorney general to ... - Times of India

NEW DELHI: Chances of Congress getting the leader of opposition post in Lok Sabha dimmed further on Friday with attorney general Mukul Rohatgi giving an opinion to Speaker Sumitra Mahajan that neither parliamentary tradition nor the law backed the grand old party's claim.

Reeling with a historic low number of 44 seats, Congress had based its claim for the LoP post on the law relating to Salary and Allowances of Leader of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977 and the rules thereunder. The 1977 law provides that the largest opposition party would get the LoP post.

READ ALSO: Why is BJP doing a Congress on Congress over LoP issue?

Answering a query on this issue posed to him by Mahajan, Rohatgi referred to the rulings given by highly regarded parliamentarian G V Mavalankar, the first Speaker of Lok Sabha. He said Mavalankar's directions were adopted to deny LoP status to any party during the period when Jawaharlal Nehru was prime minister of India from 1947 to 1964.

Rohatgi's opinion said Mavalankar had ruled that to get the LoP post in Lok Sabha, an opposition party has to secure a minimum of 10% of the seats, that is it must have a strength of 55 MPs.

Rohatgi said Mavalankar had felt that the main opposition party's numbers must equal the quorum, which is 10% of the total strength, required for functioning of the House.

Following the rulings of Mavalankar, the Congress regimes under Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi had decided not to give the LoP post to the then largest opposition party because they had failed to reach the 55 MP-mark in Lok sabha.

The government has highlighted direction 121 of 'Directions to the Speaker' which provide that a party's strength must be one-tenth of Lok Sabha to be recognized as a parliamentary party or group.

NDA's tough posture, now backed by the AG's opinion, has set the stage for some jostling between the government and Congress as the latter's 44 MPs in Lok Sabha fall well short of the required 55, the number that constitutes a quorum.

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