With the Congress routed by the Narendra Modi wave in the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the party faces the ignominy of not being officially declared the opposition party when the Lower House of Parliament is convened. The one sided match was easily won by the BJP with its rivals throwing in the towel a couple of hours after trends started to pour in indicating a massive win for the Modi-led front.
According to the Constitution of India a party can only be recognised as main opposition party officially only if it has at least 10 per cent of the strength of the Lok Sabha. So the Congress needs at least 54 seats in 543-member Lok Sabha to get the official status of an Opposition and its leader in the House as the Leader of Opposition.
The Leaders of the Opposition is accorded statutory recognition and given salary and certain other facilities and amenities under the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977. The Leader of the Opposition occupies a seat in the front row left to the Chair. He/she also enjoys certain privileges on ceremonial occasions like escorting the Speaker-elect to the rostrum and a seat in' the front row at the time of the Address by the President to members of both the Houses of Parliament.
But with the Congress all set to end with less than 50 seats, it is will fall from a ruling party to being just another entity in the Lok Sabha without any statutory recognition. Although it will not be an unprecedented situation as before the 1977 elections, except for a brief spell of one year (December 1969-December 1970), there had been no official 'Opposition' in the sense the term is used in the parliamentary system of government. In November 1969, for the first time since Independence, the Lok Sabha had a recognised Opposition party and a Leader of the Opposition.
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