List of female opposition leaders in India

The leader of the opposition is the politician who leads the official opposition in the State legislative assemblies of India and State legislative councils of India. Official Opposition^[1] is a term used in legislative Assemblies to designate the political party which has secured the second largest number of seat assembly. In order to get formal recognition, the party must have at least 10% of the total membership of the Legislative Assembly. A single party has to meet the 10% seat criterion, not an alliance. Many of the Indian state legislatures also follow this 10% rule, while the rest of them prefer the single largest opposition party according to the rules of their respective houses.

As of 5 May 2026, 13 women have served as leaders of the opposition in 9 out of 28 state assemblies and 1 out of 3 Union Territory assemblies, while only two women have served in two of the seven legislative councils. The first female leader of the opposition was Arutla Kamala Devi of Andhra Pradesh when she became leader of the opposition in the legislative assembly in February 1964. C. Motamma is the first female leader of the opposition in the state legislative council. Jamuna Devi was the longest-serving leader of the opposition, followed by Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. Maharashtra and Punjab are the only two states that had three and two female leaders of the opposition, respectively. Rabri Devi is the only female leader who served as the leader of the opposition in both the legislative assembly and legislative council of her respective state Bihar. Jamuna Devi and Indira Hridayesh are the only two who died in the office.

Among these 14 women leaders of opposition in both houses, four also served as leader of the house (also Chief Minister) of their respective state. These were Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Rabri Devi, Vasundhra Raje and Atishi Marlena. While J. Jayalalithaa served as Chief Minister but not the leader of the house. Only Jayalalithaa, Rajinder Kaur and Jamuna Devi served two non-consecutive terms in state legislative assemblies, while Rabri Devi served three non-consecutive terms in the state legislative council. Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir , Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram , Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim ,Telangana Uttar Pradesh doesn't have woman opposition leader.

Rabri Devi is the incumbent female leader of the opposition in Bihar Legislative Council. ^[2] Atishi Marlena is the incumbent leader of opposition in Delhi Legislative Assembly.