Former Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath has emerged as the frontrunner to lead the Congress team of 44 members in the lok Sabha and also may be the favourite to be the leader of Opposition (loP) in the House.
Party sources said that choice could be between Nath and former Union Minister M Veerappa Moily.Nath, one of the two Congress MPs from Madhya Pradesh, emerged as the main troubleshooter for the party after Pranab Mukherjee became the President of India.Interestingly, Nath could also be the pro-tem Speaker as well since he is one of the senior-most members in the newly elected House. Two other veteran MPs, Manikrao Gavit of the Congress and Basudeb Acharia of CPI(M), senior to Nath, lost the elections this time.
Nath has gone on record blaming former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s “silence” and ten years of “fatigue” as prime factors for the poll debacle. According to a Congress leader, Nath’s name has been doing the rounds following reports that Sonia and Rahul are said to be averse to taking up the post of leader of the Opposition in the lok Sabha.Sonia is not keeping well and has restrained herself from much political activities. Rahul apparently is not interested in leading the party in the lok Sabha as he has drawn criticism for not being vocal in the House in the last one decade of the UPA regime. He will also like to keep himself busy in the organisation after the worst ever defeat of the Congress in the electoral history, the leader added.
The Congress Working Committee (CWC), which had met on Monday, did not discuss who will be party’s leader in the lok Sabha, but several senior members have already expressed their support to Nath and Moily for the post.
“Only Nath has the charisma to take on the jumbo Modi Government in Parliament,” the leader added.But a section in the party is opposed to Nath’s appointment as loP apprehending that such a move could be opposed by party MPs from southern States — Kerala and Karnataka — which have contributed significantly as against just two members from Madhya Pradesh.
The Congress could have its own leader of the Opposition if the Speaker relaxes the rules or recognises the entire UPA as a block, which has 56 MPs. The Congress is the largest on the Opposition Benches with 44 seats and to be recognised as the main Opposition, a party has to get at least 10 per cent of the total strength of the 543-member House — that is 55 MPs. However, there is nothing statutory about this requirement, which can be waived by the Speaker.
There is also speculation that AIADMK and Trinamool Congress, which have 37 and 34 members respectively, can come together to claim the post. Names of Ghulam Nabi Azad, Digvijay Singh and Jairam Ramesh are doing the rounds for the leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. Party managers are insisting that Manmohan Singh, who was the leader of the Rajya Sabha during UPA-II, should be consulted on the appointment.