The Leader of the Opposition is the politician who leads the official opposition in the State legislative assemblies of India and State legislative councils of India. Official Opposition [1] is a term used in legislative Assemblies to designate the political party which has secured the second largest number of seat assembly. In order to get formal recognition, the party must have at least 10% of the total membership of the Legislative Assembly. A single party has to meet the 10% seat criterion, not an alliance. Many of the Indian state legislatures also follow this 10% rule, while the rest of them prefer the single largest opposition party according to the rules of their respective houses.
As of December 2024, 10 women have served as leaders of the opposition in 8 out of 28 state assemblies, while only two women have served in two of the seven legislative councils. Three union territory assemblies never had the female leaders of the opposition. The first female leader of the opposition was Prabha Rau of Maharashtra when she became leader of the opposition in the legislative assembly in February 1979. Motamma is the first female leader of the opposition in the state legislative council. Jamuna Devi was the longest-serving leader of the opposition, followed by Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. Maharashtra and Punjab are the only two states that had two female leaders of the opposition. Rabri Devi is the only female leader who served as the leader of the opposition in both the legislative assembly and legislative council of her respective state Bihar. Jamuna Devi and Indira Hridayesh are the only two who died in the office.
Rabri Devi is the only incumbent female leader of the opposition in Bihar Legislative Council. No incumbent female leader of the opposition in state legislative assembly. [2]
AIADMK (1) BJP (1) INC (7) RJD (1) | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | State/Union territory | Political party | Government | Ref | |||||
Assumed office | Left office | Time in office | Chief Minister | Party | ||||||||
1 | Prabha Rau (1935-2010) | ? February 1979 | 13 July 1979 | ~5-6 months | Maharashtra | Indian National Congress | Sharad Pawar | Indian Congress (Socialist) | [3] | |||
2 | Pratibha Patil (b. 1934) | 16 July 1979 | 17 February 1980 | 216 days | [4] | |||||||
3 | Gurbinder Kaur Brar (1922-2013) | 29 September 1985 | 11 May 1987 | 1 year, 224 days | Punjab | Surjit Singh Barnala | Shiromani Akali Dal | [5] | ||||
4 | K. S. Nagarathanamma (1923-1993) | 29 January 1987 | 21 April 1989 | 2 years, 85 days | Karnataka | Ramakrishna Hegde & S. R. Bommai | Janata Party | [6] | ||||
5 | J. Jayalalithaa (1948–2016) | 9 February 1989 | 1 December 1989 [RES] | 5 years, 280 days | Tamil Nadu | All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | M. Karunanidhi | Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam | [7] | |||
29 May 2006 | 14 May 2011 | |||||||||||
6 | Rajinder Kaur Bhattal (b. 1945) | 12 February 1997 | 10 October 1998 [RES] | 6 years, 253 days | Punjab | Indian National Congress | Prakash Singh Badal | Shiromani Akali Dal | [8] | |||
1 March 2007 | 14 March 2012 | [9] | ||||||||||
7 | Jamuna Devi (1929-2010) | 16 December 2003 | 11 December 2008 | 6 years, 259 days | Madhya Pradesh | Uma Bharti, Babulal Gaur & Shivraj Singh Chauhan | Bharatiya Janata Party | [10] | ||||
7 January 2009 | 24 September 2010 [†] | Shivraj Singh Chauhan | ||||||||||
8 | Rabri Devi (b. 1959) | 30 November 2005 | 24 November 2010 | 4 years, 359 days | Bihar | Rashtriya Janata Dal | Nitish Kumar | Janata Dal (United) | [11] | |||
9 | Vasundhra Raje (b. 1953) | 2 January 2009 | 20 February 2013 | 4 years, 49 days | Rajasthan | Bhartiya Janata Party | Ashok Gehlot | Indian National Congress | [12] | |||
10 | Indira Hridayesh (1941-2021) | 27 March 2017 | 13 June 2021 [†] | 4 years, 78 days | Uttrakhand | Indian National Congress | Trivendra Singh Rawat & Tirath Singh Rawat | Bhartiya Janata Party | [13] |
|
INC (1) RJD (1) | ||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
No. | Portrait | Name (Birth–Death) | Term of office | State/Union territory | Political party | Chief Minister | Ref | |||||
Assumed office | Left office | Time in office | ||||||||||
1 | Motamma (b. 1951) | 1 September 2010 | 17 June 2012 | 1 year, 290 days | Karnataka | Indian National Congress | B. S. Yediyurappa & Sadananda Gowda | [14] | ||||
2 | Rabri Devi* (b. 1959) | 12 May 2018 | 23 June 2020 | 2 years, 42 days | Bihar | Rashtriya Janata Dal | Nitish Kumar | [15] | ||||
11 April 2022 | 9 August 2022 | 120 days | ||||||||||
16 February 2024 | Incumbent | 340 days |
The Rashtriya Janata Dal is an Indian political party, mainly based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Lalu Prasad Yadav.
Rabri Devi is an Indian politician who formerly served 3 terms as the Chief Minister of Bihar, the first and only woman till date to have held the office. She is a Member (MLC) of Bihar Legislative Council and currently serving as the Leader of the Opposition in Bihar Legislative Council.
Dharam Narayan Singh was an Indian politician who served as the 11th Chief Minister of Karnataka from 28 May 2004 to 28 January 2006 and Member of the Lok Sabha from Bidar Lok Sabha constituency, in 15th Lok Sabha from 2009 to 2014.
Although India is a parliamentary democracy, the country's politics has become dynastic or with high level of nepotism, possibly due to the absence of party organizations, independent civil-society associations which mobilize support for a party, or centralized financing of elections. The dynastic phenomenon is present at the national, state, regional, and district level. The Nehru–Gandhi family has produced three Indian prime ministers, and family members have largely led the Congress party since 1978. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also has several dynastic leaders. In addition to the major national parties, other national and regional parties such as Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), Shiromani Akali Dal, Shiv Sena, Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Janata Dal Secular, Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, Kerala Congress, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference, Indian Union Muslim League, AIMIM, and the Nationalist Congress Party are all dominated by families, mostly those of the party founders.
Anirudh Prasad Yadav, better known as Sadhu Yadav, is an Indian politician and founder of Garib Janta Dal (Secular). He has served in 14th Lok Sabha as MP of Gopalganj from 2004 to 2009 as Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) candidate. Sadhu was MLA of Gopalganj assembly from 2000 to 2004.
Sitaram Yadav is an Indian politician who was a member of the 14th Lok Sabha of India. He represented the Sitamarhi constituency of Bihar as a member of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) political party.
Veerendra Basappa Patil was a senior Indian politician and was twice, the Chief Minister of Karnataka. He became Chief Minister for the first time from 1968–1971 and the second time was almost 18 years later, from 1989–1990.
Margaret Nazareth Alva is an Indian politician. She served as the 17th Governor of Goa, 23rd Governor of Gujarat, 19th Governor of Rajasthan and 4th Governor of Uttarakhand at various times between 2009 and 2014. She has formerly served as the Cabinet Minister. She took over in Rajasthan from the Punjab governor, Shivraj Patil, who had been holding an additional charge of that state. Before being appointed governor, she was a senior figure in the Indian National Congress and was Joint Secretary of the All India Congress Committee. Her mother-in-law, Violet Alva, was Second Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha in 1960s.
Prabha Rau was an Indian politician and the Governor of Rajasthan state of India when she died. She was appointed Governor of Rajasthan after she was transferred from Governor of Himachal Pradesh after Urmila Singh took charge on 25 Jan 2010 at Shimla. Initially following the death of previous governor of Rajasthan S.K. Singh, she got additional charge as Governor of Rajasthan along with charge of Governor of Himachal Pradesh. She was the governor of Himachal Pradesh since 19 July 2008. She was the former president of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee. She hailed from Wardha. She has a brother named Arun Wasu.
Dr Padmasinha Bajirao Patil is a former member of 15th Lok Sabha, the lower house of Parliament of India.
Mapanna Mallikarjun Kharge is an Indian lawyer and politician serving as the President of the Indian National Congress since 2022, and Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha since 2021. He has been a Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from Karnataka since 2020.
Raghopur is an assembly constituency in Vaishali district in the Indian state of Bihar. It consists of Raghopur and Bidupur.
Although a parliamentary democracy, Indian politics has increasingly become dynastic, possibly due to the absence of a party organization, independent civil society associations that mobilize support for the party, and centralized financing of elections. Family members have also led the Congress party for most of the period since 1978 when Indira Gandhi floated the then Congress(I) faction of the party. It also is fairly common in many political parties in Maharashtra. The dynastic phenomenon is seen from national level down to district level and even village level.The three-tier structure of Panchayati Raj established in the 1960s also helped to create and consolidate the dynastic phenomenon in rural areas. Apart from government, political families also control cooperative institutions, mainly cooperative sugar factories, district cooperative banks in the state, and since the 1980s private for profit colleges. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party also features several senior leaders who are dynasts. In Maharashtra, the NCP has particularly high level of dynasticism.
The list of political families of Bihar state of India:
The Jai Prakash Janta Dal (JPJD) is a political party in India based on the ideology of Jayaprakash Narayan popularly known as Lok Nayak who as an Indian Independence Activist, Social Reformer, Theorist and a Political Leader, deeply remembered for leading the mid-1970s opposition against PM Indira Gandhi. The primary motive of the party is to work for the welfare of the common citizens of India by providing them their constitutional rights, Jai Prakash Janta Dal aims to solve the fundamental issues of economical, social and political inequality along with the issues of underdevelopment, poverty and the discrimination prevailing in the society. The party has been registered by the Election Commission of India in the year 2002 and has been allotted the symbol of Diesel Pump. The JPJD is a right-wing party following the vision of JP.
Uttamrao Laxmanrao Patil alias Nanasaheb was an Indian politician and leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party. He was elected to Second Lok Sabha from 1957 to 1962 from Dhulia Lok Sabha Constituency of erstwhile Bombay State as a candidate of Bharatiya Jana Sangh. He was elected to Ninth Lok Sabha from 1989 to 1991 from Erandol Lok Sabha Constituency of Maharashtra as a candidate of Bharatiya Janata Party. He was also a Member of Maharashtra Legislative Council during 1954-55 and from 1966 to 1978. He was the Leader of Opposition of the council from 1966 to 1978. He was also a member of Maharashtra Legislative Assembly from 1978 to 1980. He was state cabinet minister from 1978 to 1980 in the Progressive Democratic alliance Government of Maharashtra state led by Sharad Pawar. He held revenue portfolio. He was an advocate by profession. Shri Patil authored two books. He was also the founder editor of Sudarshan weekly. He died on 18 November 2001 at Mumbai.
The elections held in India in 2019 includes the general election, by-elections to the Lok Sabha, elections to 7 state legislative assemblies and numerous other by-elections to state legislative assemblies, councils and local bodies.
Patil is an Indian surname used in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana, and Goa.
Veerendra Patil ministry was the Council of Ministers in Karnataka, a state in South India headed by Veerendra Patil that was formed after Indian National Congress won 178 seats in 224 seat Assembly of Karnataka in 1989 elections.