Leader of Opposition status: Congress calls Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's decision unfair

NEW DELHI: Congress today reacted sharply to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan's decision rejecting the Leader of Opposition status in Lok Sabha and said it is "unfair and blatantly paritisan".

"The Speaker's ruling is unfair, blatantly partisan and in direct conflict with law and statutes," party spokesman Anand Sharma said.

He said that citing past conventions and Speakers' direction, the present Speaker cannot invoke the same to overrule the law of Parliament and statutes.

"Any convention and Speakers' directive cannot subordinate the law," he said.

Sharma said the Speaker's decision "squarely goes" to prove that the present regime is going to "undermine" every institution including Parliament.

"The Prime Minister's statement of building a consensus is a sham and it shows that he does not believe in consensus but in confrontation," Sharma said.

The Congress demand for being accorded the status of Leader of Opposition to its group chief in Lok Sabha was today rejected by Speaker Sumitra Mahajan.

"I have gone by rules and tradition," she told PTI on the decision.

Congress has been maintaining that there is no law which make it binding for the largest opposition party to have a particular number of seats to claim the LoP status in Lok Sabha.