Rahul Gandhi resumes role of Leader of opposition

New Delhi: On a day that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi assumed the role of leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha and a day after some discordant notes emerged out of the INDIA bloc of opposition parties on the issue of Speaker’s election, with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress making its disappointment public about not being initially consulted about the joint candidate to contest Om Birla for the Speaker’s chair, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate on Wednesday said that Rahul Gandhi’s “innate respect for people” is the main reason why his role as LoP will keep Opposition alliance together.
The Congress spokesperson also said that Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee has dealt a “big blow to Modi’s BJP in Bengal” and that it is “TMC which is in the forefront of fight against BJP in Bengal” hence the Congress leadership has immense “respect for her,” while replying to questions at a media interaction at the Indian Women’s Press Corp here.
Asked about how the INDIA alliance hopes to keep together, keep up the bonhomie among divergent interests of parties, to take on the Modi government, Shrinate said, “ We have a huge amount of respect for our coalition partners however big or small they are… we have a relationship of equals… and a lot of the answer lies in the fact that Rahul Gandhi has assumed the role of the Leader of Opposition.”
Elaborating on that, she said, “the LoP is not just somebody who is a collective leader of the non-treasury benches, the LoP galvanizes forces against the government and acts as the fulcrum of the anti-BJP coalition, and Congress will be not shy away from that role.”
“Even during the election campaign Rahul Gandhi played that role… on the December 31, 2022, Rahul Gandhi said here in the middle of the Bharat Jodo Yatra that there will be places where he will play a larger role, there will be places where he will step back , leave some ground, if that is what it takes to reign in the forces that are out to destroy the country. So, you will see a lot of that maturity play out as he has taken over as LoP. Every partnership requires some give or take… I think the innate fact that he treats people with respect… eventually politicians are human beings... also the Opposition is well together and one thing that binds them together is the supremacy of India’s Constitution.”
On TMC, the Congress spokesperson said, “Mamata didi and TMC are part of INDIA. They have given a big blow to Modi ji and BJP in Bengal. All praise for her (Mamata)… for that I hail her leadership… It is true that Congress has to try get back some ground in the state, but sometimes when there is a big problem, one has to go out with a big heart and step back to fight and we have certainly allowed TMC to fight that fight,” adding that Congress will take up the issue of regaining its space at the right moment.