Congress MP Wants Sonia To Be Leader Of Lok Sabha

New Delhi: Amid deliberations in the Congress on the choice of leader of house in the Lok Sabha, a party MP Moday suggested that Congress president Sonia Gandhi should take the post. “In my personal opinion, she should be the Leader of the House and there maybe a deputy leader also,” said the MP, who spoke only on the condition of anonymity.

The suggestion has come amid clear indications from the Congress that a new leader of the house will be appointed before the start of monsoon session of parliament Aug 8 in place of Pranab Mukherjee.
Gandhi was the leader of opposition in Lok Sabha before the Congress came back to power in 2004.
Party sources said that DMK, an ally of the Congress in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA), has already urged Gandhi to take up the post.  The sources said there has been a convention that the leader of the house is a senior minister but it was not a necessity.
Party MP Sis Ram Ola is the party’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha. Ten party MPs had last week urged Sonia Gandhi to appoint party general secretary Rahul Gandhi as the leader of the house.
The names doing the rounds in the party as probable candidates for the post of leader of the house include Power Minister Sushilkumar Shinde, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Jaipal Reddy.
Home Minister P. Chidambaram’s role in the government is also set to increase after Mukherjee’s elevation to Rashtrapati Bhavan.

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