Leading the new Opposition

Shubhadeep Choudhury

On June 8, after the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution urging Rahul Gandhi to take up the post of Leader of the Opposition (LoP), he refrained from agreeing to the proposal there and then, saying he would think about it. This gave rise to speculation that Rahul was once again trying to evade responsibility. Names of various MPs, from the competent Gaurav Gogoi to some uninspiring veteran leaders, started doing the rounds. Just ahead of the inaugural session of the 18th Lok Sabha, it was announced that the Gandhi scion would take the plunge — a small step in the estimation of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance perhaps, but a giant leap for Rahul Gandhi personally and the Congress. His leadership skills will be put to test at once on how he takes the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc along.

‘Keep the faith’

Congratulations to the new Leader of the Opposition @RahulGandhi. May you always keep the faith. God bless... Om Birla Ji is NDA Speaker candidate. Hope he realises that with 234 of us this time, his ‘Naw Baithiye’ won’t be as easy to implementRs TMC MP Mahua Moitra on X

‘Matter of great joy’

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has been elected as the Leader of Opposition. It is a matter of great joy that the Opposition parties will benefit from a personality with unwavering loyalty to the Constitution and the values of democracy. Congratulations to him and best wishes for future endeavours.  — NCP(SP) MP Supriya Sule on X

He is not taken seriously: BJP

Rahul Gandhi is not taken seriously by members of his own party, not to speak of Opposition leaders. The Congress has been going downhill and has now hit rock bottom. Rahul as LoP does not augur well for the Opposition... every party learns something from results, we are reviewing ours. — Samik Bhattacharya, BJP RS member from West bengal

The Lok Sabha has a Leader of the Opposition after 10 years. There’s palpable enthusiasm and hope in the Congress rank and file that the BJP’s favourite whipping boy could turn out to be a thorn in its flesh.

Rahul had sprung another surprise earlier by not taking off for a foreign trip soon after the seven-phase Lok Sabha elections got over and the results were announced. The former Congress president has often drawn criticism for going missing at crucial junctures. Rahul stayed put in the country after a hard-fought election campaign spread over nearly two months.

The 18th Lok Sabha, unlike the two previous Lok Sabhas, has an impressive presence of Opposition members. The INDIA bloc has 234 members (and has the support of three Independent MPs) in the 543-member House to NDA’s 292. The numerical strength got reflected when a voice vote was taken for the Speaker’s election. The sound of the Opposition MPs’ “nays” quite matched the “ayes” from the treasury benches. Pro tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab could promptly announce the verdict in favour of the NDA nominee only because he knew that the number of NDA MPs in the House was more than their INDIA counterparts.

NK Premachandran, Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) MP from Kollam in Kerala, says the BJP can already sense the changed atmosphere in the House. “It is fearful of the large presence of Opposition MPs, signs of panic are visible,” he claims. “They had Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla make a reference to the Emergency just to give the impression that nothing has changed. But the reality is different and the BJP cannot ignore it by pretending that there is nothing amiss,” he adds.

In the past two Lok Sabhas, the Congress lacked the numbers to stake claim to the post of LoP. This time, having 99 MPs (98, with Rahul Gandhi giving up his Wayanad seat in favour of Rae Bareli), the Congress, the largest Opposition party, was eligible to claim the post.

ROLE CALL

The person holding the post of Leader of the Opposition is party to crucial appointments like those of the chiefs of the Enforcement Directorate, Central Bureau of Investigation and the Central Vigilance Commission. Analysts say Rahul donning the role of LoP would fuel talk of comparisons with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but with very different connotations than in the past, when any such conversation inevitably favoured PM Modi and lampooned Rahul. Not anymore, they point out.

“Age is not on Modi’s side. Rahul has this advantage over him,” feels John Brittas, the CPI(M) Rajya Sabha member from Kerala.

Though any talk of PM Modi’s retirement, when he crosses the age of 75, was firmly dismissed by Amit Shah during the election campaign, the party’s lower-than-expected seat tally has fuelled speculation that the prospect of Modi leaving space for a relatively younger person is no longer just an Opposition fantasy.

STATURE GROWS

First the two editions of his ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, then the turnaround in the Lok Sabha election results and now becoming Leader of the Opposition, Rahul Gandhi has grown in stature. The BJP’s favourite moniker for him — ‘Pappu’ — seems to have lost its currency. There is now much reduced resonance to the memes and jokes portraying him as an immature politician who lacks seriousness.

Narendra Pani, political analyst and a professor at the Bengaluru-based National Institute of Advanced Studies, feels Rahul as LoP would create a link between demands raised outside Parliament and inside it. “He has created a pro-equality narrative with the help of his yatras. Now that he is the LoP, one can expect that the agenda of the yatras would be taken up forcefully inside the Lok Sabha also,” Pani says.

The challenges Rahul faces are many, the biggest being finding common ground within the INDIA bloc and acting as a bridge. The Congress fumbled at the very start by not intimating the bloc constituents in advance about Rahul accepting the post of LoP. Shortly before Congress general secretary KC Venugopal made the announcement about Rahul being made the LoP, a meeting of the INDIA bloc parties was held at Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge’s residence to discuss the alliance’s strategy for the Speaker’s election. Even though the Congress had already taken the decision to appoint Rahul as the LoP and Congress Parliamentary Party chairperson Sonia Gandhi had communicated the decision to Pro tem Speaker Mahtab, the alliance partners were not informed about the decision.

“This is the problem with the Congress. There is often a communication gap. They could have easily told us about the decision, which was announced shortly after our meeting got over,” a floor leader of an Opposition party said.

The Congress’ propensity to not take its partners into confidence was also cited as the reason for the early hiccups from the Trinamool Congress camp. The TMC was upset about not being informed about the Congress’ decision to field K Suresh in the the election for the Speaker’s post.

The issue of not keeping the alliance partners in the loop is likely to get addressed with Rahul taking over as LoP, the alliance partners hope. “We think Rahul Gandhi will be mindful about the point of view of smaller parties and pay attention to what they say,” opines Premachandran, the sole member of RSP in the Lok Sabha and a member of the INDIA bloc.

making presence felt

Gaurav Gogoi, the Congress MP from Jorhat in Assam, feels Rahul is the “natural leader” and his appointment as the Leader of the Opposition only amounted to formalising the position. “The two yatras and other campaign strategies devised by Rahul Gandhi proved very useful in the elections,” Gogoi adds.

On the mood of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Gogoi, who was Deputy Leader of the Congress in the last Lok Sabha, said, “We are upbeat and robust. We will force the government to take up existential issues like unemployment and price rise.”

Awadhesh Prasad, the Samajwadi Party MP who sprang a surprise by defeating the BJP nominee in Faizabad, feels Rahul is the most competent person to lead the Opposition. “I congratulated him. He has passion. He will be able to keep the nefarious designs of the Modi government in check. We are all part of the INDIA bloc and we are one,” Prasad adds.

Dayanidhi Maran of the DMK and Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party are among the top Opposition leaders who would like to make their presence felt in the current Lok Sabha. While Sudip Bandopadhyay is the leader of the Trinamool Congress in the Lok Sabha, all eyes will be on Mahua Moitra, the firebrand TMC MP from Krishnanagar in West Bengal.

Moitra, who was expelled from the last Lok Sabha following a complaint by a BJP MP, has made a triumphant return, vowing not to back down in her tirade again Prime Minister Modi.

While the irregularities in the NEET examination will be a rallying point for the Opposition in both Houses of Parliament, the recent train accident in West Bengal and the soon-to-be-implemented new criminal codes are other issues that the Opposition is likely to take up strongly in the ongoing session. Many Opposition parties, including the Congress and TMC, have demanded a review of the new laws.

IMPACT IN RAJYA SABHA

The upbeat mood of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha is likely to make an impact in the Rajya Sabha too. Manoj Kumar Jha, leader of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in the Rajya Sabha, promised fireworks in the Upper House. “Just wait and see,” he said when asked about the Opposition’s action plan. On the Biju Janata Dal’s decision to act as an Opposition party in the Rajya Sabha, Jha said even occasional aid coming from any quarter during stand-offs would be a good thing.

Sasmit Patra, leader of the BJD, claimed the party had always been in the Opposition. “I do not know how the word spread that we were supporting the BJP,” Patra said. He, however, admitted that their seatting plan in the Rajya Sabha chamber got changed after it was announced that BJD would act as an Opposition party.

Other Opposition parties brush aside the Naveen Patnaik-led party’s claim. “They supported the BJP on key issues in the past. Let’s see what they do,” a CPI(M) MP said.

#Congress #INDIA bloc #Rahul Gandhi