Congress Working Committee asks Rahul Gandhi to accept Leader of Opposition post in Lok Sabha

Congress Working Committee resolves to ask Rahul Gandhi to become Leader of the Opposition, says Bharat Jodo and Bharat Jodo Nyay yatras were turning points

The Congress Working Committee unanimously adopted a resolution on Saturday asking Rahul Gandhi to become the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the 18th Lok Sabha.

Taking note of the sentiments expressed at the party’s highest decision-making body, Mr. Gandhi said he will think it over and decide “very soon”. Party president Mallikarjun Kharge urged him to “abide” by the CWC’s formal resolution and take up the responsibility.

The Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) comprising the newly-elected Lok Sabha members and Rajya Sabha members also met later at the historic Central Hall of Samvidhan Sadan (Old Parliament) and re-elected Sonia Gandhi as the chairperson after her name was proposed by Mr. Kharge.

The CWC praised the party’s Lok Sabha performance under adverse conditions, but the party decided to set up separate committees in States, including party-ruled Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana, to find out why the performance was below expectations and what could be done to correct the situation.

In his opening remarks at the CWC, Mr. Kharge asserted that the 2024 Lok Sabha election verdict is a “decisive rejection of the politics of divisiveness and hate of the BJP of the past 10 years” and stressed that the INDIA bloc must continue to function cohesively both inside and outside Parliament.

Echoing him, Ms. Gandhi told the Congress MPs that she did not expect to see any change in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “substance and style of his governance”. “That is why, as members of the CPP, we have a special obligation to be watchful, vigilant and proactive in holding him and his new NDA government accountable,” she said.

The main resolution of the CWC congratulated the people for “voting so powerfully to preserve democracy, protect the Constitution and enhance social and economic justice”.