The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Rahul Gandhi will serve as leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, his colleague in the Congress party K.C. Venugopal announced on Tuesday (June 25).
Venugopal said the chairperson of the Congress’s parliamentary party, Sonia Gandhi, had written to pro tem Lok Sabha speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab of Gandhi’s selection to the post.
“We are confident that as [leader of opposition], Rahul ji will be a bold voice for the common people of India and ensure that the NDA government is held firmly accountable at all times,” Venugopal said on X.
A party needs at least 55 MPs or one-third of the total strength of the Lok Sabha to stake claim for the post.
The Congress, the largest party in the opposition INDIA bloc in the Lok Sabha, won 99 seats in the lower chamber of parliament in the general election.
There was no leader of opposition in the previous Lok Sabha because no opposition party had won enough seats to stake claim to the post.
Gandhi contested the election from the Wayanad seat in Kerala and also from the Rae Bareli seat in Uttar Pradesh. He won both and decided to retain the latter seat, which has been a bastion of the Congress as well as of his family in the past.
The 18th Lok Sabha began its first session on Monday and Gandhi took oath as MP on Tuesday.
Earlier this month, the Congress Working Committee passed a resolution to appoint Gandhi as leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge serves as leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha, whose members are either indirectly elected by members of state legislatures or are appointed by the president.