NEW DELHI: With the winter session of the Parliament scheduled to start in two weeks, the Congress party seems to be dragging its feet on choosing the next Leader of Opposition (LoP) of Rajya Sabha. The post fell vacant after veteran Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge resigned as the LoP in consonance with the party’s ‘One leader, One post’ policy adopted in the Udaipur ‘Chintan Shivir’ declaration. Sticking to the party line, Kharge tendered his resignation to former party President Sonia Gandhi on September 29, after filing the nomination for the chief post.
Kharge assumed charge as LoP in the Upper House in February 2021 after the retirement of Ghulam Nabi Azad. After Kharge’s resignation, the names of senior Congress leaders P Chidambaram, Mukul Wasnik, Digvijay Singh, and Pramod Tiwari have been doing the rounds as front runners for the post. Party sources said that Digvijay Singh may be a more acceptable choice for the party as an able administrator from the Northern belt. Singh had opted out of the Congress presidential race to back Kharge.