Mallikarjun Kharge To Stay On As Leader Of Opposition, Big Congress U-Turn: Sources

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge may continue as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha, in violation of a key rule, as the party hasn't yet decided on his replacement in parliament.

If Mr Kharge holds two posts, it will be a complete reversal of the "One Person, One Post" policy that Rahul Gandhi stressed at a time Ashok Gehlot was hoping for a double role.

Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party's "strategy group" tomorrow. Only Mr Kharge, Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal have been called for the meet from Rajya Sabha, sources say.  

Digvijaya Singh and P Chidambaram, who are seen as frontrunners to replace Mr Kharge in Rajya Sabha, have not been invited to the meeting, sources say.

Mr Kharge had resigned as Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha before filing his nomination papers for Congress chief, but sources say he may continue in the role, at least for the winter session of parliament.

Sources say after the short session is over, the party is likely to shake up the Congress Parliamentary Party.

Besides Mr Kharge, there are two more "exceptions" to the Congress policy. Adhiranjan Choudhary, who is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha, is also the party's Bengal president. Jairam Ramesh is both Rajya Sabha chief whip and chief of Congress Communications.

In September, Rahul Gandhi had asserted that the Congress would be firm on the policy it committed to during its Udaipur session in February.

His message was for Ashok Gehlot, who, as the Gandhis' top choice for Congress president at the time, had been reluctant to give up the Rajasthan Chief Minister's post. Congress MLAs close to him even refused to attend a meeting, in a rare show of defiance, objecting to Mr Gehlot being replaced by his rival Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan if he took up a national role.

Mr Gehlot was finally dropped and Mr Kharge stepped in as the "official" candidate for the Congress president polls in October. It now seems that the Congress will need to make an exception for Mr Kharge after all.