SHILLONG, March 16: Who should be the Leader of the Opposition in the newly constituted Assembly? Unable to settle the issue among themselves, it will have to be the Speaker’s call, it seems.
While the five-member Congress has nominated Ronnie V. Lyngdoh for the post, TMC has not made any move so far. No, they may not go for a consensus, but will prefer to leave it to the discretion of the Speaker.
State TMC president Charles Pyngrope said here on Thursday that it is Speaker’s prerogative and there is no rule in the Constitution that states that a party has to have ten members to claim the post. “There are multiple parties in the Opposition — VPP, Congress, and TMC. Therefore it is the Speaker who has to decide,” he said.
Asked if the party is trying to have any understanding with Congress, he said, “There is a little misunderstanding here. There is no rule in the Constitution that states that you have to have ten members. That rule does not exist.”
“Therefore the talks between the two parties with both having five members each in the House would be just an alliance but eventually that does not determine who will be the Leader of the Opposition. That is totally the prerogative of the Speaker,” said Pyngrope, who is a former Assembly Speaker.
On the party’s nominee for the post, he said, “Last time we had Dr Mukul Sangma from the party and we will project him only but the point is not who you project now because there are multiple parties then the Speaker takes the call this is as per the practice and procedure of the Parliament.”
Stating that it is always advisable to have the Leader of the Opposition, he said, “Besides being LoP of the house the chair is also part of multiple committees like the high-powered committee or the business advisory committee. The LoP is always the member and let’s suppose you are selecting the member of the Human Rights Commission there are various important roles of the LoP besides being just the LoP in the house there are other duties the LoP has to perform also.”
Talking about the Congress’ claim that they should be nominated for being a national party, he said, “Letter submitted by a political party is respected by the Speaker’s office but the point is he is not bound by that letter because there are no rules of procedures or practice procedure in the Parliament or the Constitution that binds the Speaker because of the letter.
“That is totally the prerogative of the Speaker. Normally the precedence is that the party with the largest number of members in the house is the opposition is given the preference and that is only precedence, not a rule,” he reiterated.
Asked if the TMC will be okay if the LoP is from Congress, he said, “It is not a question of us being okay or not. It is the Speaker’s domain and we cannot intrude into the jurisdiction of the Speaker.”
