There is still a lot of suspense about whether Rahul Gandhi will “accept” the role of the ‘Leader of the Opposition’ in the parliament or not. This is even though the Congress Working Committee has passed a unanimous resolution urging him to accept the role of the Leader of the Opposition.
It will be for the first time in the last three General Elections that the Congress is in a position to claim the position of the Leader of the Opposition, for which a party needs 10 per cent members of the total strength, which comes to 55.
In 2014 the Congress had 46 and in 2019 it had 52 members only. This time it has 100 members, having won 99 and one independent from Maharashtra joining the party later.
The general impression being given by senior party leaders is that Rahul is reluctant to take the “responsibility” in the parliament since he wants to focus on working across the country and does not want to get tied down in the Lok Sabha business alone. Leader of the Opposition is a full-time job and requires maximum presence in the capital even when the house is not in session.
While the uncertainty continues to persist, as Rahul remains reluctant, the party is looking for other options at the same time. Three main leaders who are reportedly under consideration include Chandigarh MP Manish Tewari, Jorhat (Assam) MP Gaurav Gogoi and Sirsa (Haryana) MP Kumari Selja.
Gaurav Gogoi, who was elected for the third time, was the Deputy Leader of the Congress party in the outgoing seventeenth Lok Sabha. He did an excellent job with his effective and impactful communication skills, overcoming the language limitations and managing to speak in chaste Hindi and English.
Kumari Selja is a five-time MP having represented Sirsa and Ambala parliamentary constituencies from time to time. She has also been a former union minister. She comes from an influential Dalit political family.
Since the leader of the Congress in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge also happens to be a Dalit, the party may have second thoughts about appointing a Dalit as its leader also in the Lok Sabha, although that should hardly be a consideration.
Given her interest in Haryana, which is going to polls later this year, she may not be very keen to take up the parliamentary role. She also has Chief Ministerial ambitions and is considered very close to Sonia Gandhi.
Manish Tewari is also a former union minister and three-time MP. He is the only MP other than Rahul Gandhi, who has represented three different parliamentary constituencies, Ludhiana and Anandpur Sahib in Punjab and now he is representing the only parliamentary constituency in the union territory of Chandigarh.
Tewari is a brilliant orator having command of both English and Hindi, besides his mother tongue Punjabi. He has served as Information and Broadcasting Minister in the second term of Dr Manmohan Singh’s government. Besides, he has served as the president of the National Students Union of India and the Indian Youth Congress for a long time.
He has also been writing regularly in various newspapers across the country on domestic and international issues. Compared to Gogoi and Selja, he may prove to be a better and more aggressive speaker on the floor of the house. He is also known for making logical and reasonable arguments in the house.
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