Leader of the Opposition (Vishwamitra)

Leader of the Opposition
नेता प्रतिपक्ष
Logo of the Leader of the Opposition
Incumbent Devin Purcell since 13 October 2023
Style	The Honourable
Member of	Lok Sabha
Reports to	Lok Sabha
Nominator	Members of the Lok Sabha belonging to the opposition
Appointer	Lok Sabha
Term length	No fixed term
Inaugural holder	Tanishkaa Patranabish
Formation	2014 (2014)

The Leader of His Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition, more commonly known simply as the Leader of the Opposition, is a member of the Lok Sabha who leads the official opposition in Vishwamitra. The leader of the opposition by convention leads the largest party not within the government: where one party wins outright this is the party leader of the second largest political party in the Lok Sabha. A political party out of the government is required to have at least 10% of the total seats, that is two members in the Lok Sabha, in order to be recognized as the official opposition.

In the 16th Lok Sabha, Devin Purcell of the Vishwamitran National Party is the current leader of the opposition from 13 October 2023.

History

The position of the leader of the opposition came into existence for the first time following the 2014 general election when Tanishkaa Patranabish officially assumed the role. The position prior to 2014 was never created because of the government being in a full majority in the parliament. The position of the leader of the opposition remained vacant following Tanishkaa Patranabish's appointment as Prime Minister in February 2015 and has been rarely used since 2017. The position was recreated in March 2021 following the opposition's winning more than 10% seats in the parliament.

Position and privileges

Although not constitutionally mandated, the leader of the opposition had always been granted the same status and position of that of a cabinet minister and has served as members of several parliamentary committees and commissions during their tenure.

Leaders of the opposition

The Parliament did not recognize any member as the Leader of the Opposition until 2014. The position is currently held by Devin Purcell of the Vishwamitran National Party in the 16th Lok Sabha.

Parliament	Portrait	Name (born – died) Constituency	Tenure in office			Political party		Government	Prime Minister
			From	To	Time in office
Interim	Position vacant		15 April 2007	31 December 2009	7002991000000000000♠2 years, 260 days	No official opposition		Arnisha	Arnisha Phatowali
1st			11 January 2010	22 May 2012	7002862000000000000♠2 years, 132 days			Dhrubajyoti I	Dhrubajyoti Roy
2nd			22 May 2012	21 May 2014	7002729000000000000♠1 year, 364 days			Dhrubajyoti II
3rd		Tanishkaa Patranabish (born 2004) MP for Beltola	21 May 2014	22 February 2015	7002216000000000000♠216 days		Independent	Sarala I	Sarala Baishya
4th	Position vacant		22 February 2015	6 December 2015	7002287000000000000♠287 days	No official opposition		Tanishkaa I	Tanishkaa Patranabish
5th			6 December 2015	11 April 2016	7002127000000000000♠127 days			Sarala II	Sarala Baishya
6th	Position vacant		11 April 2016	9 July 2016	7001890000000000000♠89 days			Dhrubajyoti III	Dhrubajyoti Roy
		Sarala Baishya (born 2005) MP for Basant Bahar	10 July 2016	18 September 2016	7001700000000000000♠70 days		Independent Party
	Position vacant		18 September 2016	30 December 2016	7002103000000000000♠103 days	No official opposition
7th		Arnab Sil (born 2004) MP for Outer Goshala	30 December 2016	2 January 2017	7000300000000000000♠3 days		Freedom Party	Dhrubajyoti IV
		Saikat Seal (born 2006) MP for Inner Goshala	2 January 2017	12 April 2017	7002100000000000000♠100 days
		Tanishkaa Patranabish (born 2004) MP for Beltola	12 April 2017	5 July 2017	7001840000000000000♠84 days		Secular Party	Sarala III	Sarala Baishya
8th	Position vacant		5 July 2017	21 March 2018	7002259000000000000♠259 days	No official opposition		Tanishkaa II	Tanishkaa Patranabish
								Dhrubajyoti V	Dhrubajyoti Roy
9th			21 March 2018	25 November 2018	7002249000000000000♠249 days			Dhrubajyoti VI
								Tanishkaa III	Tanishkaa Patranabish
								Dhrubajyoti VII	Dhrubajyoti Roy
10th			7 January 2019	15 March 2019	7001670000000000000♠67 days			Tanishkaa IV	Tanishkaa Patranabish
11th		Sarala Baishya (born 2005) MP for Beltola Rural	17 March 2019	29 September 2019	7002196000000000000♠196 days		Independent Party	Tanishkaa V
	Position vacant		29 September 2019	3 March 2020	7002156000000000000♠156 days	No official opposition
12th			22 March 2020	7 June 2020	7001770000000000000♠77 days			Tanishkaa VI	Tanishkaa Patranabish
								Tanishkaa VII
		Sarala Baishya (born 2005) MP for Beltola Rural	7 June 2020	28 January 2021	7002235000000000000♠235 days		Independent	Anoushkaa II	Princess Anoushkaa
13th		David Augustus (born 2007) MP for Boragaon	8 March 2021	21 October 2021	7002227000000000000♠227 days		Royalist Party	Ștefan II	Ștefan Marius Snagoveanu
								Farhaz I	Farhaz Hazarika
14th		David Brooke (born 1981) MP for National List	22 November 2021	3 December 2021	7001110000000000000♠11 days		Green Socialist Party	Farhaz II
	Position vacant		3 December 2021	27 January 2022	7001550000000000000♠55 days	No official opposition
		William Cooper (born 2006) MP for Dadara	27 January 2022	12 May 2022	7002105000000000000♠105 days		Social Democratic Party
	Position vacant		12 May 2022	3 October 2022	7002144000000000000♠144 days	No official opposition		Farhaz III
15th		Toyotomi-Kim Tatsumi (born 1992) MP for Radisson	9 November 2022	2 June 2023	7002205000000000000♠205 days		Vishwamitran National Party	Farhaz IV
		Rory Leonard (born 2007) MP for Noonmati	2 June 2023	13 June 2023	7001110000000000000♠11 days
		Chandrachur Basu (born 2006) MP for Basistha Central	13 June 2023	7 September 2023	7001860000000000000♠86 days
16th		Devin Purcell (born 2006) MP for Boragaon	13 October 2023	Incumbent	7001500000000000000♠50 days			Farhaz V

Timeline

See also

• Lok Sabha
• Leader of the House (Vishwamitra)