List of leaders of the opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly

Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly
Leader of the Opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly
	Emblem of Punjab
	Incumbent; Partap Singh Bajwa ; since 9 April 2022
Member of	Punjab Legislative Assembly ; Official Opposition ;
Nominator	Members of Official Opposition
Appointer	Speaker of Punjab assembly
Term length	Five years,; No restriction on renewal
Inaugural holder	Gopi Chand Bhargava
Formation	6 April 1937; 88 years, 151 days ago
Deputy	Aruna Chaudhary ; (since 3 September 2024)

Last updated September 04, 2025

The leader of the opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly is the politician who leads the official opposition in the Punjab Legislative Assembly. The leader of the opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically seen as an alternative prime minister, premier, first minister, or chief minister to the incumbent; in the Westminster system, they head a rival alternative government known as the shadow cabinet or opposition front bench.^[1]^[2] The same term is also used to refer to the leader of the largest political party that is not in government in subnational state, provincial, and other regional and local legislatures. The incumbent leader of the opposition in the Punjab assembly is Partap Singh Bajwa of Indian National Congress, while Aruna Chaudhary is his deputy.

Official Opposition

Official Opposition^[3] is a term used in Punjab Legislative Assembly to designate the political party which has secured the second largest number of seats Punjab assembly. In order to get formal recognition, the party must have at least 10% of 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 follows this 10% rule while the rest of them prefer single largest opposition party according to the rules of their respective houses. Punjab Legislative Assembly appointed the member of the second largest party as Leader of opposition.^[4]

Role

The Opposition's main role is to question the government of the day and hold them accountable to the public. The Opposition is equally responsible in upholding the best interests of the people of the country. They have to ensure that the Government does not take any steps, which might have negative effects on the people of the country.^[5]

The role of the opposition in legislature is basically to check the excesses of the ruling or dominant party, and not to be totally antagonistic. There are actions of the ruling party which may be beneficial to the masses and opposition is expected to support such steps.^[6]

In legislature, Opposition Party has a major role and must act to discourage the party in power from acting against the interests of the country and the common man. They are expected to alert the population and the Government on the content of any Bill, which is not in the best interests of the country.

History

After Independence

Till now, 18 people served as leaders of the opposition in the Punjab assembly. Gopal Singh Khalsa was the first leader of the opposition in the first Punjab assembly as in the Interim assembly, there was no opposition as all non-Congress members who were elected in the 1946 election joined Congress after the partition.^[7] He was also the first Dalit who became the leader of the opposition. The other Dalit leaders of the opposition in Punjab were Jagjit Singh, Satnam Singh Kainth and Charanjit Singh Channi. Out of 18, Prakash Singh Badal and Gurnam Singh served thrice, while Rajinder Kaur Bhattal served twice, and all others served only once. Gurbinder Kaur Brar was the first female leader of the opposition in the Punjab assembly, and the other was Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. Prakash Singh Badal was the longest-serving leader of the opposition, while Harvinder Singh Phoolka served the shortest. Balram Jakhar and Sunil Kumar Jakhar was the father-son duo served the post.

Gurnam Singh, Parkash Singh Badal, Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and Charanjit Singh Channi also served as the Leader of the House.

There were a total of 11 occasions when the post remained vacant. Out of these, 3 occasions were when opposition was not present in the assembly, while other 8 occasions were when assembly was either under suspension or dissolved due to various reasons. In former case, 2 out of 3 times, opposition members actually joined the governnment under some agreements and in the remaining 1 case, opposition resingned from the assembly because of Supreme Court of India's decision on Sutlej Yamuna link canal issue.

Color keys

Color keys for the party of leaders of the opposition

Other keys

Vancacy due to dissolution of assembly
Vancacy due to absence of opposition in assembly
Vancacy due to suspension of assembly