After the crushing defeat in the assembly elections held in five states, the condition of the Congress is going to be worse. The Congress, which proved to be a laggard in the assembly elections, is now going to face a major setback in the Rajya Sabha as well. The status of Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha can also be lost from the hands of Congress.
With the biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha being held this year, the Congress may see a historic drop in the number of members. In such a situation, she will come very close to the required number to maintain the position of Leader of the Opposition. If the party is unable to do well in the Gujarat elections later this year and the Karnataka Assembly elections next year, it will lose the Leader of the Opposition status in the subsequent biennial elections to the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress currently has 34 members in the Rajya Sabha and is likely to hit a record low of at least seven seats this year. According to the norms, a party should have at least 10 percent strength of the total membership of the House, only then it is given the status of Leader of the Opposition.
10 percent numbers required to get the status of Leader of Opposition
Rajya Sabha officials said a party must have at least 25 members for its leader in the House to retain the status of Leader of the Opposition. At present, Mallikarjun Kharge is the Leader of the Opposition in the House along with being the Leader of the Congress. The Congress does not have the status of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha as its present strength in the House is less than 10 per cent of the total members of the House.
The term of two members of Punjab is ending
The Election Commission had recently announced elections to fill 13 vacant posts in the Rajya Sabha. Of these, five seats are from Punjab and eight seats are for Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Kerala, Nagaland and Tripura. Two Congress members are among the members to retire from Punjab next month.
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