It is not AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge but Sonia Gandhi, head of the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP), empowered to appoint Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha. Earlier, under the party constitution, the leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha was the highest post to be appointed by the Congress president. However, in 1998, the CPP constitution was amended to create the chairperson’s post. Under subclause ‘C,’ the chairperson, not the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, has the power to nominate the party leaders in both houses, as well as deputy leaders and chief whips. The amended clause now reads: “The chairperson shall have the authority to name the leader of the CPP to head the government, if necessary.”
So, if Rahul is appointed as the LoP, the appointing authority would be his mother, Sonia Gandhi. AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge, who is the LoP in the Rajya Sabha, is also a Sonia appointee.
Historically, the Congress party has experienced a complex and often strained relationship between its organisational and parliamentary wings. When Mohammad Ali Jinnah was in the Congress, he had no admiration for the Congress High Command and often compared it to the Fascist Grand Council.
This duality of power centres within the party and the Congress Parliamentary Party has frequently led to confrontations. Before independence, true power resided in the organisational structure, as the Congress functioned more as a movement than a political party. After 1947, when the Congress became a ruling party under Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, the then AICC chief Acharya Kripalani tried to force Nehru to consult before taking crucial administrative decisions. Nehru, possessing a commanding personality, opted to disregard Kripalani’s attempts to “guide and advise” the government, asserting that the “tail could not wag the dog.” He later faced a similar challenge from Purushottam Das Tandon, known for his moderate Hindutva leanings, who became party chief in 1952. Nehru humbled Tandon by asking the entire CWC to hand over resignations and ensured that Tandon would not dare challenge him.
Nehru’s daughter, Indira, also experienced numerous confrontations with the party leadership. Following Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death in office, she was appointed prime minister by party stalwarts K. Kamaraj and S. Nijalingappa. However, when the powerful Congress syndicate attempted to impose its will on her premiership, Indira Gandhi decisively sidelined them within the party. Since her era, the party president has played second fiddle to the person occupying the top seat in the government.
While the balance of power generally favoured the prime minister over the party president from Nehru to Rajiv Gandhi’s tenures, it fell to Sonia to reverse the equation in 1998 when she took over as the party chief. Her advisors devised a strategy to grant her the authority to appoint the leader of the house in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha, even though she was not even a member of parliament. Pranab Mukherjee, who had been a man of all seasons in the grand old party, had offered a remedy to ensure Sonia’s authority over the parliamentary wing.
In May 2004, Sonia Gandhi appointed two leaders as CPP leaders in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. She named Manmohan Singh as leader of the house in Rajya Sabha and Pranab Mukherjee as leader of the house in Lok Sabha. Manmohan Singh, as we all know, was also sworn in as prime minister.
The writer is a Visiting Fellow at the Observer Research Foundation. A well-known political analyst, he has written several books, including ‘24 Akbar Road’ and ‘Sonia: A Biography’. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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