Cong unlikely to get LOP as A- G says ‘ no’
Speaker will take final call
The door appears to have been shut on the Congress’ demand for Leader of the Opposition status in the Lok Sabha. Attorney- general Mukul Rohatgi, whose opinion had been sought by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, has said that neither does the Congress have the requisite strength in the House to claim that status, nor is there any precedent to back it in parliamentary history.
Sources said that the A- G has pointed out to the Speaker that any party must have a strength of at least 10 per cent of the House to be entitled to the LOP post. The A- G also noted that there was no precedent in which a party lacking such strength had been given the LOP status.
After repeated demands from the Congress, Ms Mahajan had said she would seek the opinion of legal and constitutional experts, besides other experienced persons, before taking a final call on the matter.
Sources said that in his detailed opinion, the A- G had reasoned that a party must have a strength equal to the quorum of the House, which is 10 per cent ( 55 out of 545 members). Also, the A- G noted there was no precedent since the days of the first Lok Sabha, when Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister. Since the days of the first Speaker, G. V. Mavlankar, no party had got this status without meeting the 10 per cent benchmark. He cited the example of 1984, when under late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi the Congress
Continued from Page 1 had secured over 400 eats, but the LOP status was not granted to the single largest party in the Opposition ( TDP), the sources said.
While the Speaker will now have to take a decision, that will necessarily be a political one, the A- G has also qualified his opinion by noting that conventions did not bar any party from making demands even though there was no legal backing for it, the sources added. In a clear indication that the government is not inclined to see the Congress getting LOP status, senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy tweeted that after the A- G’s opinion, “I do not think that the Speaker can go against it”.
This development appears to have given a jolt to the Congress, as the party seems isolated in the Lok Sabha. Even the Trinamul Congress seems to have joined the ranks of the BJD and AIADMK in seeking friendly ties with the NDA. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pitch for cooperative federalism seems to have encouraged the regional parties to back the government in the Budget discussion, as they sought assistance from the Centre for their respective states.
Congress leader Manish Tewari claimed later Friday that “the A- G’s opinion does not undermine the Congress demand”. Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed hoped that the “Speaker will not be misguided by the A- G’s opinion”. He said: “The A- G articulates the government’s views”.