Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha

In the Rajya Sabha until 1969, the title of opposition leader only existed de facto and had no formal recognition, status or privilege. Later, the leader of the opposition was given official recognition and their salary and allowances was extended by the Act, 1977. Since then, the leader in the Rajya Sabha should satisfy three conditions, namely,

1. he should be a member of the House
2. of the party in opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength and
3. be recognised by the chairperson of the Rajya Sabha

In December 1969, the Congress Party (O) was recognised as the main opposition party in the parliament while its leader, Shyam Nandan Mishra plays the role of opposition leader. M. S. Gurupadaswamy was later elected the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha after Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra completed his tenure. However, Gurupadaswamy's appointment was declared with no formal announcement.

The Leader of Opposition (LoP) looks at government policies formulated for the rights of minorities and demands debate and criticises the government if ruling party tries to avoid debates on such policy. LoP also debates on the country's foreign relations and trade when it poses security threats on the national security.^[1][2]

Opposition leaders play a significant role in government policies and their implementation by the ruling party. Sometimes, opposition leaders question government about the country's national security and development.^[3] After the constitution of India created a separate law on 1 November 1977 for opposition leaders, the salary was extended.^[4]

Following members have been the leaders of the opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

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No.	Portrait		Name (born – died) Constituency	Term of office			Political party	Government	Leader of House		Chairman (Tenure)
No official opposition (13 May 1952 – 17 December 1969)
1			Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra (1920–2004) MP for Bihar	18 December 1969	11 March 1971	1 year, 83 days	Indian National Congress (O)	Indira II	Kodardas Kalidas Shah		Gopal Swarup Pathak (1969–1974)
2			M. S. Gurupadaswamy (1924–2011) MP for Uttar Pradesh	24 March 1971	2 April 1972	1 year, 9 days		Indira III	Uma Shankar Dikshit
No official opposition (2 April 1972 – 30 March 1977)
3			Kamalapati Tripathi (1905–1990) MP for Uttar Pradesh	30 March 1977	15 February 1978	322 days	Indian National Congress (R)	Desai	L. K. Advani		B. D. Jatti (1974–1979)
4			Bhola Paswan Shastri (1914–1990) MP for Bihar	24 February 1978	23 March 1978	27 days
(3)			Kamalapati Tripathi (1905–1990) MP for Uttar Pradesh	23 March 1978	8 January 1980	1 year, 291 days
							Indian National Congress (Urs)	Charan	K. C. Pant		Mohammad Hidayatullah (1979–1984)
5			L. K. Advani (born 1927) MP for Gujarat	21 January 1980	7 April 1980	77 days	Janata Party	Indira IV	Pranab Mukherjee
No official opposition (7 April 1980 – 18 December 1989)
6			P. Shiv Shankar (1929–2017) MP for Gujarat	18 December 1989	2 January 1991	1 year, 15 days	Indian National Congress (I)	Vishwanath	M. S. Gurupadaswamy		Shankar Dayal Sharma (1987–1992)
								Chandra Shekhar	Yashwant Sinha
(2)			M. S. Gurupadaswamy (1924–2011) MP for Karnataka	28 June 1991	21 July 1991	23 days	Janata Dal	Rao	Vacant
7			S. Jaipal Reddy (1942–2019) MP for Andhra Pradesh	22 July 1991	29 June 1992	343 days			Shankarrao Chavan
8			Sikander Bakht (1918–2004) MP for Madhya Pradesh	7 July 1992	16 May 1996	3 years, 314 days	Bharatiya Janata Party
											K. R. Narayanan (1992–1997)
9			Shankarrao Chavan (1920–2004) MP for Maharashtra	23 May 1996	1 June 1996	9 days	Indian National Congress	Vajpayee I	Sikander Bakht
(8)			Sikander Bakht (1918–2004) MP for Madhya Pradesh	1 June 1996	19 March 1998	1 year, 291 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Deve Gowda	Inder Kumar Gujral
									H. D. Deve Gowda
								Gujral	Inder Kumar Gujral
											Krishan Kant (1997–2002)
10			Manmohan Singh (1932–2024) MP for Assam	19 March 1998	22 May 2004	6 years, 64 days	Indian National Congress	Vajpayee II	Sikander Bakht
								Vajpayee III	Jaswant Singh
											Bhairon Singh Shekhawat (2002–2007)
11			Jaswant Singh (1938–2020) MP for Rajasthan	3 June 2004	16 May 2009	4 years, 347 days	Bharatiya Janata Party	Manmohan I	Manmohan Singh
											Mohammad Hamid Ansari (2007–2017)
12			Arun Jaitley (1952–2019) MP for Gujarat	3 June 2009	26 May 2014	4 years, 357 days		Manmohan II
13			Ghulam Nabi Azad (born 1949) MP for Jammu and Kashmir	8 June 2014	10 February 2015	6 years, 252 days	Indian National Congress	Modi I	Arun Jaitley
				23 February 2015	15 February 2021
											M. Venkaiah Naidu (2017–2022)
								Modi II	Thawar Chand Gehlot
14			Mallikarjun Kharge (born 1942) MP for Karnataka	16 February 2021	Incumbent	5 years, 158 days
									Piyush Goyal
											Jagdeep Dhankhar (2022–2025)
								Modi III	J. P. Nadda
											C.P. Radhakrishnan (2025- present)

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• Vice-President of India (Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha)
• Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha
• Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha
• Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha
• Leader of the House in Lok Sabha
• Secretary General of the Rajya Sabha