Leader of the Opposition (India)

Leader of the Opposition of India
Emblem of India
Incumbent None (No opposition with more than 10% seats) (in Lok Sabha) Ghulam Nabi Azad (in Rajya Sabha)
Website	www.parliamentofindia.nic.in

The Leader of the Opposition is the politician who leads the official opposition in either House of the Parliament of India.

While the position also existed in the former Central Legislative Assembly of British India, and holders of it there included Motilal Nehru, it received statutory recognition through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977 which defines the term "Leader of the Opposition" as that member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha who, for the time being, is the Leader of that House of the Party in Opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength and recognised, as such, by the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. However, in order to get formal recognition, the concerned party must have at least 10% of the total strength of the House (55 seats in the Lok Sabha). If any party fails to get 10% seats in opposition, the House will not have recognised leader of the opposition.^[1]^[2] A single party has to meet the 10% seat criteria, not an alliance.^[3]

This is the most accepted or most spoken rule of appointing this post but when we refer to "Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977" by which the post has got official and statutory status, the majority required is decided by the head of the houses, that is speaker and chairman as the case maybe.Refer to definition of Leader of Opposition in the act.

The Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003, clause 4, provides for the leader of the largest opposition party to be inducted as a member of the selection committee in a scenario where the lower house of parliament does not have a recognised leader of the opposition.^[4]

Leaders of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha

The Lok Sabha had no recognised Leader of the Opposition until 1969 . The post was also vacant between 1980 and 1989.^[5]

Name	Party	Term	Lok Sabha
Vacant	No official opposition	26 January 1952 – 4 April 1957	First
Vacant	No official opposition	4 April 1957 – 4 March 1967	Second Third
Vacant	No official opposition	4 March 1967 – 12 December 1969	Fourth
Ram Subhag Singh	Indian National Congress (O)	17 December 1969 – 27 December 1970	Fourth
Vacant	No official opposition	27 December 1970 – 30 June 1977	Fifth
Y. B. Chavan	Indian National Congress	1 July 1977 – 11 April 1978	Sixth
C. M. Stephen		12 April 1978 – 9 July 1979
Y. B. Chavan		10–28 July 1979
Jagjivan Ram	Janata Party	29 July – 22 August 1979
Vacant	No official opposition^[6]	22 August 1979 – 18 December 1989	Seventh Eighth
Rajiv Gandhi	Indian National Congress	18 December 1989 – 23 December 1990	Ninth
L. K. Advani	Bharatiya Janata Party	24 December 1990 – 13 March 1991	Ninth
L. K. Advani		21 June 1991 – 26 July 1993	Tenth
Atal Bihari Vajpayee		21 July 1993 – 10 May 1996	Tenth
P. V. Narasimha Rao	Indian National Congress	16 May 1996 – 31 May 1996	Eleventh
Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Bharatiya Janata Party	1 June 1996 – 4 December 1997	Eleventh
Sharad Pawar	Indian National Congress	19 March 1998 – 26 April 1999	Twelfth
Sonia Gandhi	Indian National Congress	31 October 1999 – 6 February 2004	Thirteenth
L. K. Advani	Bharatiya Janata Party	21 May 2004 – 18 May 2009	Fourteenth
Sushma Swaraj	Bharatiya Janata Party	21 December 2009 – 19 May 2014	Fifteenth
Vacant	No official opposition	since 4 June 2014	Sixteenth
Source:^[7]

List of Leaders of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha

In Rajya Sabha until 1969, there was no Leader of the Opposition in real sense of the term. Till then, the practice was to call the Leader of the party in Opposition having the largest number of the members as the Leader of the Opposition, without according him any formal recognition, status or privilege. The office of Leader of the Opposition was given official recognition through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of the Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977. This Act defines the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, as a member of the Council of States who is, for the time being, the Leader in that House of the party in opposition to the Government constituting the greatest numerical strength and recognised as such by the Chairman of the Council of States. Thus, the Leader of the Opposition should satisfy three conditions, namely, (i) he should be a member of the House (ii) the Leader in Rajya Sabha of the party in opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength and (iii) be recognised as such by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha.

Following members have been the Leaders of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.^[8]

	Name	Party	Term
1	Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra	Indian National Congress (O)	December 1969 – March 1971
2	M. S. Gurupadaswamy	Indian National Congress (O)	March 1971 – April 1972
3	Kamalapati Tripathi	Indian National Congress	30 March 1977 – 15 February 1978
4	Bhola Paswan Shastri	Indian National Congress (O)	24 February 1978 – 23 March 1978
5	Kamalapati Tripathi	Indian National Congress	23 March 1978 – 8 January 1980
6	L. K. Advani	Bharatiya Jana Sangh	21 January 1980 – 7 April 1980
7	P. Shiv Shankar	Indian National Congress	18 December 1989 – 2 January 1991
8	M. S. Gurupadaswamy	Janata Dal	28 June – 21 July 1991
9	S. Jaipal Reddy	Janata Dal	22 July 1991 – 29 June 1992
10	Sikander Bakht	Bharatiya Janata Party	7 July 1992 – 23 May 1996
11	Shankarrao Chavan	Indian National Congress	23 May 1996 – 1 June 1996
12	Sikander Bakht	Bharatiya Janata Party	1 June 1996 – 19 March 1998
13	Manmohan Singh	Indian National Congress	21 March 1998 – 21 May 2004
14	Jaswant Singh	Bharatiya Janata Party	3 June 2004 – 16 May 2009
15	Arun Jaitley	Bharatiya Janata Party	3 June 2009 – 26 May 2014
16	Ghulam Nabi Azad	Indian National Congress	8 June 2014 - incumbent

References

↑ "Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977". Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India. Archived from the original on 16 January 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
↑ Parliament Of India. Legislativebodiesinindia.nic.in. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.
↑ http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/new-house-cannot-have-opposition-leader/article6034355.ece
↑ http://cvc.nic.in/cvcact.pdf
↑ http://legislativebodiesinindia.nic.in/LS/ataglace.htm
↑ http://www.rediff.com/news/column/ls-election-no-leader-of-oppn-there-wasnt-any-in-nehru-indira-rajiv-days/20140523.htm
↑ Lok Sabha. Legislativebodiesinindia.nic.in. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.
↑ Rajya Sabha Introduction. Rajyasabha.nic.in. Retrieved on 2014-05-21.

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