Rahul Gandhi has accepted a decision by the Congress Working Committee and will take up the mantle of the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha.
Congress and the INDIA group have achieved around 240 seats this time in the parliament elections. They have come closer to the BJP .
The announcement comes hours before the first big battle of the 18th Lok Sabha, between a resurgent opposition and a diminished ruling coalition, over the post of Speaker.
Denied an assurance that an opposition member would be given the post of Deputy Speaker, as is the tradition, the Congress and the INDIA bloc decided to force an election for the post of Speaker at the last minute by putting up K Suresh as its candidate against the BJP’s pick, Om Birla, who was the Speaker in the previous Lok Sabha.
Most of the time the speaker’s post has been unanimous in the parliament. But this time congress did not agree for the voice vote and they wanted polling .
Now there will be voting in the parliament for the election of the speaker. Most probably Om Birla will get elected for the post again it looks like.
