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Law Audience Journal, Volume 3 & Issue 1, 1st June 2021, e-ISSN: 2581-6705, Indexed Journal, Published at https://www.lawaudience.com/volume-3-issue-1/, Pages: 83 to 102, Title: “Who Leads the Opposition? An Analysis of Constitutional and Electoral Peculiarities in the Aftermath of the Lok Sabha Elections of 2014 & 2019”, Authored By: Mr. Harshit Sharma (Pursuing Ph.D), National Law University, Jodhpur & Co-Authored By: Ms. Maryanka, Asst. Prof, School of Law, IMS Unison University, Dehradun, Email Ids: [email protected], [email protected]. Cite this article as: MR. HARSHIT SHARMA & MS. MARYANKA, Who Leads the Opposition? An Analysis of Constitutional and Electoral Peculiarities in the Aftermath of the Lok Sabha Elections of 2014 & 2019, Vol.3 & Issue 1, Law Audience Journal, Pages 83 to 102 (1st June 2021), available at https://www.lawaudience.com/who- leads-the-opposition-an-analysis-of-constitutional-and-electoral-peculiarities-in-the-aftermath- of-the-lok-sabha-elections-of-2014-2019/. WWW.LAWAUDIENCE.COM | ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED WITH LAW AUDIENCE. 80 Law Audience Journal, Volume 3 & Issue 1, 1st June 2021, e-ISSN: 2581-6705, Indexed Journal, Published at https://www.lawaudience.com/volume-3-issue-1/, Pages: 83 to 102, Title: “Who Leads the Opposition? An Analysis of Constitutional and Electoral Peculiarities in the Aftermath of the Lok Sabha Elections of 2014 & 2019”, Authored By: Mr. Harshit Sharma (Pursuing Ph.D), National Law University, Jodhpur & Co-Authored By: Ms. Maryanka, Asst. Prof, School of Law, IMS Unison University, Dehradun, Email Ids: [email protected], [email protected]. Publisher Details Are Available At: https://www.lawaudience.com/publisher-details/ Editorial Board Members Details Are Available At: https://www.lawaudience.com/editorial-board-members/ |Copyright © 2021 By Law Audience Journal| (E-ISSN: 2581-6705) All Copyrights are reserved with the Authors. But, however, the Authors have granted to the Journal (Law Audience Journal), an irrevocable, non-exclusive, royalty- free and transferable license to publish, reproduce, store, transmit, display and distribute it in the Journal or books or in any form and all other media, retrieval systems and other formats now or hereafter known. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, subject of the email must be “Permission Required” at the email addresses given below. Email: [email protected], [email protected], Phone: +91-8351033361, Website: www.lawaudience.com. Facebook: www.facebook.com/lawaudience Instagram: www.instagram.com/lawaudienceofficial Contact Timings: 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. WWW.LAWAUDIENCE.COM | ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED WITH LAW AUDIENCE. 81 Law Audience Journal, Volume 3 & Issue 1, 1st June 2021, e-ISSN: 2581-6705, Indexed Journal, Published at https://www.lawaudience.com/volume-3-issue-1/, Pages: 83 to 102, Title: “Who Leads the Opposition? An Analysis of Constitutional and Electoral Peculiarities in the Aftermath of the Lok Sabha Elections of 2014 & 2019”, Authored By: Mr. Harshit Sharma (Pursuing Ph.D), National Law University, Jodhpur & Co-Authored By: Ms. Maryanka, Asst. Prof, School of Law, IMS Unison University, Dehradun, Email Ids: [email protected], [email protected]. DISCLAIMER: Law Audience Journal (e-ISSN: 2581-6705) and Its Editorial Board Members do not guarantee that the material published in it is 100 percent reliable. You can rely upon it at your own risk. But, however, the Journal and Its Editorial Board Members have taken the proper steps to provide the readers with relevant material. Proper footnotes & references have been given to avoid any copyright or plagiarism issue. Articles published in Volume 3 & Issue 1 are the original work of the authors. Views or Opinions or Suggestions (if any), expressed or published in the Journal are the personal point of views of the Author(s) or Contributor(s) and the Journal & Its Editorial Board Members are not liable for the same. While every effort has been made to avoid any mistake or omission, this publication is published online on the condition and understanding that the publisher shall not be liable in any manner to any person by reason of any mistake or omission in this publication or for any action taken or omitted to be taken or advice rendered or accepted on the basis of this work. All disputes subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of Courts, Tribunals and Forums at Himachal Pradesh only. WWW.LAWAUDIENCE.COM | ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED WITH LAW AUDIENCE. 82 Law Audience Journal, Volume 3 & Issue 1, 1st June 2021, e-ISSN: 2581-6705, Indexed Journal, Published at https://www.lawaudience.com/volume-3-issue-1/, Pages: 83 to 102, Title: “Who Leads the Opposition? An Analysis of Constitutional and Electoral Peculiarities in the Aftermath of the Lok Sabha Elections of 2014 & 2019”, Authored By: Mr. Harshit Sharma (Pursuing Ph.D), National Law University, Jodhpur & Co-Authored By: Ms. Maryanka, Asst. Prof, School of Law, IMS Unison University, Dehradun, Email Ids: [email protected], [email protected]. ABSTRACT: “2014 & 2019 Lok Sabha elections result stupefied the whole nation when BJP sailed through the NAMO wave and recorded land sliding victories. These two general elections also saw the grand old party Congress in the dismal position. It was able to get only 44 out of 543 Lok Sabha seat or 8.1% seats in the 16th Lok Sabha and 52 out of 543 Seats in 17th Lok Sabha Elections. Several controversies surrounded these elections but the prime one was failure of the congress to qualify for Leader of Opposition on its own on the basis 10% rule. So, this Research Paper seeks to look in the situation that who leads the opposition when there is no well-established opposition party on the floor of parliament due to non-acquiring of 10% seats in parliament. Further a judicious attempt has been made to analyse the situation that what happens to the appointments of various constitutional post which requires the involvement of the leader of opposition into their appointment. So, the researchers have endeavoured to make a holistic analysis of all constitutional and statutory provisions in order to trace this long followed 10% rule and has tried to explain the electoral peculiarities especially in the aftermath of the Lok Sabha elections 2014”. Keywords: Constitution, General Elections, Leader of Opposition, Parliament Act, Speaker. I. INTRODUCTION: "People shouldn't be afraid of their government. Governments should be afraid of their people."~ Alan Moore Democracy is the basic feature of Indian Constitution and the Leader of Opposition is the pillar upon which Democracy stands. May 16th 2014 will be remembered in Indian Political history as a special and magical date. India became free of coalition politics and its repercussions finally after 30 years. This day India got a visionary leader in form of Prime Minister Narendra Modi with scintillating majority for BJP. It was viewed as essentially vote for Mr Modi and his Gujarat development model. The campaign successfully eroded the communal image of Mr. WWW.LAWAUDIENCE.COM | ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED WITH LAW AUDIENCE. 83 Law Audience Journal, Volume 3 & Issue 1, 1st June 2021, e-ISSN: 2581-6705, Indexed Journal, Published at https://www.lawaudience.com/volume-3-issue-1/, Pages: 83 to 102, Title: “Who Leads the Opposition? An Analysis of Constitutional and Electoral Peculiarities in the Aftermath of the Lok Sabha Elections of 2014 & 2019”, Authored By: Mr. Harshit Sharma (Pursuing Ph.D), National Law University, Jodhpur & Co-Authored By: Ms. Maryanka, Asst. Prof, School of Law, IMS Unison University, Dehradun, Email Ids: [email protected], [email protected]. Modi and showed him as a thinking man, a man who would transform India and usher it into the truthful and rightful place of India. This day also saw the grand old party Congress in the dismal position. It was able to get only 44 out of 543 Lok Sabha seat or 8.1% seats in the 16th Lok Sabha. Similarly in 2019 General Elections for 17th Lok Sabha Congress the largest opposition party secured 52 Seats, three short of 55 Seats based on 10% Rule. II. IMMEDIATE CONTROVERSIES: II.I Lack of Minimum Mandate: Congress being the second largest party after ruling BJP consequently demanded that it should be given status of Leader of the Opposition Party (LOOP). BJP showed reluctance to accord this post and status on a plank of 10% rule.1 As per conventional norms a party and its leader can be accorded status of LOOP only if it gets 10% seats in the Lok Sabha and if no opposition party has 10% of seats then there can be no LOOP. The Congress was scrambling for LOOP and the BJP was denying it. II.II Imran Ali vs. Union of India2: Immediately after the results, Imran Ali filed a PIL into Delhi High Court seeking the appointment of a LoP in parliament. The petitioner contended that the Central Vigilance Commission Act, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as CVC, Act, 2003), Right to Information Act, 2005 (hereinafter referred to as RTI, Act, 2005), etc. provide that the LOOP shall be a part of the committee in deciding matters of appointment and hence a LOOP would have to be appointed. II.III Misuse of Power by Speaker: A further contention was that Rule 121 of the Directions by the Speaker [issued] under Rule 389 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in Lok Sabha was “wrongly” invoked 1 Congress, BJP spar over leader of opposition’s post, Available on- http://www.livemint.com/Politics/VnHcvjtzCNDRfu7DEhS8sJ/No-decision-yet-on-leader-of-opposition-status- to-Congress.html, (Last Visited 25 February, 2021).
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