No 10% rule, yet Maha still has no LoP

Mumbai: Will Maharashtra get a Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the legislative assembly even though no opposition party has secured at least 10% of the 288 seats?

To be sure, there is neither any rule regarding the appointment of an LoP based on 10% strength, nor has the position been denied to the opposition when it has secured less seats. In fact, between 1962 and 1989, when the Congress was in power in the state, there were ten instances of opposition parties with less than 20 MLAs bagging the LoP position.

Given this backdrop, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) – which won 20 seats in the assembly polls in November, the highest among opposition parties – submitted an official letter to the assembly speaker on March 4, seeking the LoP position for its four-term MLA from Guhagar, Bhaskar Jadhav. But after a period of 21 days, on the last day of the budget session on March 26, speaker Rahul Narwekar said when asked about the issue, “I will take a decision following the laws.”

‘No 10% rule’

There is no rule stipulating award to the LoP position to a party that secures at least 10% seats in the assembly, said NCP (SP) state president Jayant Patil and former state legislature secretary Anant Kalse.

“The rule states that the single largest party in the opposition should get the position of LoP. There is no mention of 10%,” said Kalse.

The 10% norm was introduced in the Lok Sabha by the first speaker, GV Mavalankar, based on British Parliamentary practice, said Kalse. Mavalankar ruled that for the main opposition party to bag the LoP position, its strength must be equal to the quorum of the house, which is equivalent to 10% of the total strength.

All governments at the centre have been following the 10% norm since, including the Narendra Modi-led BJP government, which denied the LoP position to the Congress in 2014 and 2019, when it won 44 and 52 seats, respectively, while the strength of the house was 543.

In Maharashtra though, the 10% norm has not been followed strictly. In fact, the Congress – which was in power in the state since its formation in 1960 till 2014 barring a five-year period in the 1990s – never objected to naming an LoP from the largest opposition party even when the seats’ tally was in single digits.

HT reached out to Narwekar seeking clarity on the LoP appointment, but did not get any response.

Instances when 10% norm was not followed

Year – Party that bagged LoP position – Strength in assembly – Name of LoP

1962 - PWP – 15 MLAs - Krishnarao Dhulap

1967 – PWP – 19 MLAs - Krishnarao Dhulap

1972 – PWP – 7 MLAs - Dinkar Patil aka DB Patil

1977 - PWP - 13 MLAs - Ganpatrao Deshmukh

1981 - Janata Party - 17 MLAs - Babanrao Dhakne

1982 - PWP - 9 MLAs - Dinkar Patil

1986 - Janata Party - 17 MLAs - Nihal Ahmed

1987 - PWP - 13 MLAs - Datta Patil

1988 – Janata Party – 20 MLAs - Mrinal Gore

1989 – PWP – 13 MLAs - Datta Patil