Official Opposition is a term used in India to designate the political party which has secured the largest number of seats in the Lower House of parliament (Lok Sabha) but is not a part of the ruling party or coalition.
A political party is officially accorded the status of an opposition party in Lok Sabha, only if it secures at least 10 percent of the seats.
- 1984 - 1989: Telugu Desam Party
- 1989 - 1991: Indian National Congress
- 1991 - 1998: Bharatiya Janata Party
- 1998 - 2004: Indian National Congress
- 2004 - 2009: Bharatiya Janata Party
- 2009- : Bharatiya Janata Party
function of Ruling Party: The Opposition’s main role is to question the government of the day and hold them accountable to the public.The Opposition is equally responsible in upholding the best interests of the people of the country. They have to ensure that the Government does not take any steps, which might have negative implications on the people of the country.
the role of the opposition in parliament is basically to check the excesses of the ruling or dominant party, and not to be totally antagonistic. There are actions of the ruling party which may be beneficial to the masses and oppositions are expected to support such things.
In Parliament, Opposition Party should act firmly on behalf of common mass fighting for their common interest and grievances. They should raise immediate protest before a Bill passed, which is against the interest of common-men. Opposition legislators should always bear in mind that they are the representatives from each and every countryman fighting for justified demands and defending all unlawful and unfair practice.
Famous quotes containing the words official and/or opposition:
“We were that generation called “silent,” but we were silent neither, as some thought, because we shared the period’s official optimism nor, as others thought, because we feared its official repression. We were silent because the exhilaration of social action seemed to many of us just one more way of escaping the personal, of masking for a while that dread of the meaningless which was man’s fate.”
—Joan Didion (b. 1935)
“A man with your experience in affairs must have seen cause to appreciate the futility of opposition to the moral sentiment. However feeble the sufferer and however great the oppressor, it is in the nature of things that the blow should recoil upon the aggressor. For God is in the sentiment, and it cannot be withstood.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)