In the event of Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan being guided by the opinion of Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi on the question of the Leader of the Opposition (LoP), the situation will be the same as it was for 10 years from August 1979 to December 1989 — during the 7th and 8th Lok Sabhas when there was no LoP.
According to sources, the AG is understood to have said that in the Lok Sabha, the biggest Opposition party needs to have 10 per cent seats of the total strength of the House — at least 55 seats — to qualify for the LoP post. He cited the past precedence of Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi-led Lok Sabhas where no Opposition party had the numbers to claim the Leader of the Opposition post.
With a strength of only 44 MPs, the Congress is 11 MPs short for being considered a ‘recognised party’ for the LoP status. The Congress has countered this by saying it had a pre-poll alliance with other parties as the UPA and therefore has the required strength along with MPs of other alliance partners.
Mr. Rohatgi has said the rule that a party needs 10 per cent member strength to be the main opposition party stands since the time of (first Lok Sabha speaker) G.V. Mavalankar in 1950. From the first Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Ram Subhag Singh, in 1969, to Y.B Chavan, Jagjivan Ram, Rajiv Gandhi, L.K. Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Sonia Gandhi, Mr. Advani (again) and Sushma Swaraj, the 10 per cent rule was considered.
