Rahul Gandhi nominated as India’s opposition leader

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s arch-rival Rahul Gandhi was nominated on Saturday (June 8) to lead the opposition in India’s parliament, an election result that saves his party from a political quagmire.

Modi will Sworn in for third term This weekend, a poll showed that his The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) holds a majorityforcing it to rely on alliance allies for governance.

Gandhi defied analysts’ expectations and exit polls, helping the Congress party nearly double its parliamentary seat tally, the most since Modi came to power ten years ago.

The Congress party leadership met on Saturday and voted unanimously to recommend Gandhi’s election as India’s official leader of opposition, a post that has been vacant since 2014.

Addressing a press conference after the party’s executive committee meeting, KC Venugopal said: “All participants unanimously passed a resolution to appoint Rahul Gandhi as the Leader of Opposition in Parliament.”

The nomination will be placed before the 232-member parliamentarians of the Congress-led opposition alliance later on Saturday.

Gandhi is the scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades and the son, grandson and great-grandson of successive prime ministers starting with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.

If elected as expected, he would be recognised as leader of India’s official opposition when the new parliament convenes, which could be as early as early next week, according to local media reports.

Parliamentary rules require the leader of the opposition to be from a party that holds at least 10 percent of the 543 seats in the House of Representatives.

The post has been vacant for 10 years as the Congress party, once the main party in India’s government, failed to meet that threshold after two dismal election results.