Who will lead the Congress in Parliament? Here are the frontrunners

New Delhi, June 18: As the 17 Lok Sabha gets into motion, the big question is who will lead the Opposition. With Rahul Gandhi remaining firm on his resignation as the Congress chief and Mallikarjun Kharge not making it to the Parliament, the party with 52 seats may narrow it down to three MPs.

The frontrunners for the post are Shashi Tharoor, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhary and Kodikunnil Suresh. The Congress is expected to take a call on the matter in a day or two. Although many have suggested the name of Rahul Gandhi for the post, it appears as though he is not keen on taking on the responsibility.

The leader of opposition is a key posting as the person is also part of the high powered committee. In the previous Lok Sabha, Kharge was invited to be part of the Lokpal selection meetings as a special invitee. Sources have told OneIndia that a similar arrangement would continue as the government would not give the status of the single largest opposition to the Congress.

For this status, a party needs to have 55 MPs in the Lok Sabha, but the Congress is short by three. Although there are speculations that the government considers the demand, the NDA is not in favour of doing so.

The Congress in the days to come would not have only have to chose its leader in Parliament, but also a deputy leader.

These developments come in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modi stating outside the Parliament on Monday that numbers should not matter. He said that it is more important that the voices are being heard.