ON WEDNESDAY, Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly Speaker C Ayyannapatrudu said YSR Congress Party chief Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy's demand to be the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) was an "unreasonable desire". The Speaker said the party does not have the required 18 MLAs or one-tenth of the total strength in the House to claim the post. The YSRCP had won 11 seats in the 2024 Assembly elections. This post is established in the Salaries and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977. The Act 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.” As per practice, in the Lok Sabha and the Assemblies, a party needs to have one-tenth of the strength of the House to lay claim to the LoP post. A look at states that currently do not have an LoP: Maharashtra: Trounced in the Maharashtra Assembly elections in a BJP-led sweep, Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) parties are hoping to secure Leader of the Opposition post. The Maharashtra Assembly has 288 MLAs, with 10% of the total strength coming to 29. None of the MVA parties has 29 MLAs on their own. In the 2024 Assembly polls, the MVA comprising the Congress, NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) together won 46 seats, with the Congress getting 16, and the NCP (SP) and Shiv Sena (UBT) 10 and 20 seats, respectively. The MVA has even suggested a rotational LoP idea hoping to swing the post. Days ahead of the Budget Session, the first for the new Mahayuti government which began on Monday, the Sena (UBT) submitted a letter to Speaker Rahul Narwekar, nominating party MLA Bhaskar Jadhav for the post of LoP in the Assembly. The Congress is expected to nominate a name for the LoP in the Legislative Council, where the total strength is 78. Currently, BJP has 19 MLCs; followed by NCP, Congress and Sena (UBT) with seven each; Shiv Sena with six; NCP (SP) three and independents three. As many as 26 seats are vacant. But in the Assembly, it all comes down to Narwekar, who might reject the Sena (UBT)'s claim based on the 10% rule. Gujarat: The BJP, which has dominated the state now for decades, had its biggest-ever win in the 2022 Assembly polls, when it won 156 of the 182 seats. The Congress’s tally dropped to 17 — its lowest in the state’s history, leaving it one short of claim to the LoP post. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which had gained some traction during the Assembly poll campaign, could only manage five seats. The Congress's appeal for the LoP post cut no ice with the Speaker, with Gujarat hence having none for the first time. Subsequently, the Congress lost five more MLAs, who chose to join the BJP and get re-elected on its ticket - taking the Congress tally to 12 and the BJP's to 161. Arunachal Pradesh: In the 2024 Arunachal Pradesh elections, the BJP won 46 of the 60 seats. The Ajit Pawar-led NCP faction got 3 seats, the National People's Party 5, the People's Party of Arunachal (PPA) 2, Congress 1 and three Independents. The Pema Khandu-led BJP government subsequently got the support of the three Independent MLAs, the PPA MLAs, the NCP MLAs and the NPP MLAs. This means that the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly now only has a single Opposition MLA, the Congress’s Kumar Waii, leaving no space for an LoP. Nagaland: In the 2023 Assembly elections, the BJP and the Nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (NDPP) — who were pre-poll alliance partners — won 25 and 12 seats respectively. Their strength came to 37 in the 60-member House. Other political parties, including NCP, won seven seats, NPP five , LJP (Ram Vilas), Naga People’s Front (NPF) and RPI (Athawale) two each, JD(U) one and Independents four. The other parties whose candidates won included the NCP, NPP, NPF, RPI(A), LJP(RV), JD(U) and four Independents. Even before voting took place, the RPI(A) and the LJP(RV) (Lok Janshakti Party-Ram Vilas) — which won two seats each - pledged their support to the BJP. The other parties extended support to the ruling coalition, making Nagaland an Opposition-less government. Lok Sabha: The Lower House of Parliament did not have an LoP between 2014 and 2024 as no Opposition party had members equalling one-tenth of the total Lok Sabha strength. While the Congress won 44 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, in 2019, it won 52. Instead, senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge, then a Lok Sabha MP, was recognised as the Leader of the Congress party in the Lok Sabha after the 2014 elections, and the same was accorded to Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in 2019. By virtue of that, the two were part of several selection panels requiring the presence of the LoP. After the Congress got 99 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress staked claimed to the Leader of the Opposition post, with party leader Rahul Gandhi taking over the post.
