Contradicting Rahul Gandhi’s ‘One Person, One Post’ policy, Kharge likely to continue as LoP in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: Flouting a key rule, Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge is likely to continue as Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, since the Congress party has not been able to decide on who will replace him in Parliament yet.

The move is in clear violation of the much talked about ‘One Person, One Post’ policy that former party president Rahul Gandhi had advocated in the run-up to the Congress presidential polls. With weeks to go for the party chief’s election back then, Rajasthan chief minister and veteran Congress leader Ashok Gehlot had sparked controversy by expressing his wish to contest for the party president’s post as well as retain his CM’s chair.

Congress members aware of the developments said both Digvijaya Singh and P Chidambaram, who were in the running to replace Kharge as LOP in the Rajya Sabha, had not been invited to a meeting that Sonia Gandhi has called on Saturday. The meeting is billed to be an interaction of the Congress Parliamentary Party’s “strategy group”, with Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal being some of the few senior leaders from Rajya Sabha who are expected to attend.

Before filing his nomination papers for the Congress chief’s election, Kharge had resigned as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha. But it appears now that he may continue as LoP in the upcoming winter session of parliament.

There are, however, two more leaders who are notable exceptions to the Congress ‘One Person, One Post’ policy. Adhiranjan Choudhary, who is Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, also heads the party’s Bengal unit. Another senior leader Jairam Ramesh holds the position of Rajya Sabha chief whip and also functions as chief of Congress Communications.

Rahul Gandhi in September, just prior to the party’s organizational polls had sent out a strong message that the Congress would follow the policy of one post for one leader that it had decided on during its Udaipur Chintan Shivir, that was held in February. His message had been for the benefit of Ashok Gehlot who was at that time eyeing the post of party president without wanting to relinquish his role as Rajasthan chief minister.

 It led to Gehlot being sidelined and Kharge stepping in as the frontrunner for the post. Former Union minister Shashi Tharoor and Mallikarjun Kharge eventually contested the polls held in October with Kharge, as expected emerging the winner with a record number of votes.

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