LEADERS OF OPPOSITION PARTY -INDIA

Each House of the Parliament of India has a Leader of the Opposition. While the position also existed in the former Central Legislative Assembly of British India, and holders of it there included Motilal Nehru, it got statutory recognition through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977 which defines the term ‘Leader of the Opposition' as that member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha who, for the time being, is the Leader of that House of the Party in Opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength and recognized, as such, by the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.^[1]
List to be expanded

List of Leaders of the Opposition in Lok Sabha

Name	Party	Term
A. K. Gopalan	Communist Party of India	1952–1977
Ram Subhag Singh	Communist Party of India	1969
Y B Chavan	Indian National Congress	1977–1980
P. Upendra	Telegu Desam Party	1984–1989
Rajiv Gandhi	Indian National Congress	1989–1991
Lal Krishna Advani	Bharatiya Janata Party	November 1991- July 1993
Atal Bihari Vajpayee	Bharatiya Janata Party	1993–1996
Sharad Pawar	Indian National Congress	1998–1999
Sonia Gandhi	Indian National Congress	1999–2004
Lal Krishna Advani	Bharatiya Janata Party	2004–2009
Sushma Swaraj	Bharatiya Janata Party	2009–Present

List of Leaders of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha

In Rajya Sabha until 1969, there was no Leader of the Opposition in real sense of the term. Till then, the practice was to call the Leader of the party in Opposition having the largest number of the members as the Leader of the Opposition, without according him any formal recognition, status or privilege. The office of Leader of the Opposition was given official recognition through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of the Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977. This Act defines the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, as a member of the Council of States who is, for the time being, the Leader in that House of the party in opposition to the Government constituting the greatest numerical strength and recognized as such by the Chairman of the Council of States. Thus, the Leader of the Opposition should satisfy three conditions, namely, (i) he should be a member of the House (ii) the Leader in Rajya Sabha of the party in opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength and (iii) be recognized as such by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha. The following members have been the Leaders of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.^[2]

	Name	Party	Term
1	Shyam Nandan Mishra	Other	December 1969 - March 1971
2	M S Gurupadaswamy	Other	March 1971 - April 1972
3	Kamalapati Tripathi	Indian National Congress	March 30, 1977 - February 15, 1978
4	Bhola Paswan Shastri	Indian National Congress (O)	February 24, 1978 - March 23, 1978
5	Kamalapati Tripathi	Indian National Congress	March 23, 1978 - January 8, 1980
6	Lal Krishna Advani	Bharatiya Jan Sangh	January 21, 1980 - April 7, 1980
7	P Shiv Shankar	Indian National Congress	December 18, 1989
8	M S Gurupadaswamy	Other	June 28, 1991 - July 21, 1991
9	S. Jaipal Reddy	Congress Rebel	July 22, 1991 - June 29, 1992
10	Sikander Bakht	Bharatiya Janata Party	July 7, 1992 - May 23, 1996
11	Shankarrao Chavan	Indian National Congress	May 23, 1996 - June 1, 1996
12	Sikander Bakht	Bharatiya Janata Party	June 1, 1996 - March 19, 1998
13	Dr. Manmohan Singh	Indian National Congress	March 21, 1998 - May 21, 2004
14	Jaswant Singh	Bharatiya Janata Party	June 3, 2009 - 16 May 2010
15 SOURCE:	Arun Jaitley )	Bharatiya Janata Party	June 3, 2009–Present