Each House of the Parliament of India

Parliament of India

The Parliament of India is the supreme legislative body in India. Founded in 1919, the Parliament alone possesses legislative supremacy and thereby ultimate power over all political bodies in India. The Parliament of India comprises the President and the two Houses, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha...

 has a Leader of the Opposition. While the position also existed in the former Central Legislative Assembly

Central Legislative Assembly

The Central Legislative Assembly was a legislature for India created by the Government of India Act 1919 from the former Imperial Legislative Council, implementing the Montagu-Chelmsford Reforms...

 of British India, and holders of it there included Motilal Nehru

Motilal Nehru

Motilal Nehru was an early Indian independence activist and leader of the Indian National Congress, who remained Congress President twice, and...

, it got statutory recognition through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977 which defines the term ‘Leader of the Opposition' as that member of the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha who, for the time being, is the Leader of that House of the Party in Opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength and recognized, as such, by the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha or the Speaker of the Lok Sabha.
List to be expanded

List of Leaders of the Opposition in Lok Sabha

Name	Party	Term
A. K. Gopalan A. K. Gopalan Ayillyath Kuttiari Gopalan , 1 October 1904 to March 22, 1977, popularly known as A. K. Gopalan or AKG, was an Indian communist leader and first leader of opposition of India.- Early life and education :...	Communist Party of India Communist Party of India The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...	1952-1977
Ram Subhag Singh Ram Subhag Singh Ram Subhag Singh was an Indian politician, a member of the Indian National Congress political party and a member of the 3rd and 4th Lok Sabha. He was elected from Bikramganj and Buxar in Bihar state of India in 1962 and 1967 respectively. After the split in the Congress party in 1969, he stayed...	Communist Party of India	1969
Y B Chavan	Indian National Congress Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...	1977-1980
P. Upendra	Telegu Desam Party	1984-1989
Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Gandhi Rajiv Ratna Gandhi was the sixth Prime Minister of India . He took office after his mother's assassination on 31 October 1984; he himself was assassinated on 21 May 1991. He became the youngest Prime Minister of India when he took office at the age of 40.Rajiv Gandhi was the elder son of Indira...	Indian National Congress	1989- 1991
Lal Krishna Advani Lal Krishna Advani Lal Kishanchand Advani known as Lal Krishna Advani is a Veteran Indian politician. A former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party , which is currently the major opposition party in the Indian Parliament. He also served as a Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004...	Bharatiya Janata Party Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...	November 1991- July 1993
Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...	Bharatiya Janata Party	1993-1996
Sharad Pawar Sharad Pawar Sharadchandra Govindrao Pawar , popularly known as SAHEB , is the president of the Nationalist Congress Party which he founded in 1999, after separating from the Indian National Congress...	Indian National Congress	1998-1999
Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi Sonia Gandhi is an Italian-born Indian politician and the President of the Indian National Congress, one of the major political parties of India. She is the widow of former Prime Minister of India, Rajiv Gandhi...	Indian National Congress	1999-2004
Lal Krishna Advani	Bharatiya Janata Party	2004-2009
Sushma Swaraj	Bharatiya Janata Party	2009 - Present

List of Leaders of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha

In Rajya Sabha until 1969, there was no Leader of the Opposition in real sense of the term. Till then, the practice was to call the Leader of the party in Opposition having the largest number of the members as the Leader of the Opposition, without according him any formal recognition, status or privilege. The office of Leader of the Opposition was given official recognition through the Salary and Allowances of Leaders of the Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977. This Act defines the Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha, as a member of the Council of States who is, for the time being, the Leader in that House of the party in opposition to the Government constituting the greatest numerical strength and recognized as such by the Chairman of the Council of States. Thus, the Leader of the Opposition should satisfy three conditions, namely, (i) he should be a member of the House (ii) the Leader in Rajya Sabha of the party in opposition to the Government having the greatest numerical strength and (iii) be recognized as such by the Chairman, Rajya Sabha. The following members have been the Leaders of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha. http://rajyasabha.nic.in/rsnew/about_parliament/rajya_sabha_introduction.asp

	Name	Party	Term
1	Shyam Nandan Mishra	Other	December 1969 - March 1971
2	M S Gurupadaswamy	Other	March 1971 - April 1972
3	Kamalapati Tripathi Kamalapati Tripathi Kamalapati Tripathi , the writer, journalist, editor and freedom fighter was a senior Indian National Congress leader from Varanasi. He served as Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh as well as the Union Minister for Railways....	Indian National Congress	March 30th 1977 - February 15th 1978
4	Bhola Paswan Shastri	Indian National Congress (O)	February 24th 1978 - March 23rd 1978
5	Kamalapati Tripathi	Indian National Congress	March 23rd 1978 - January 8th 1980
6	Lal Krishna Advani Lal Krishna Advani Lal Kishanchand Advani known as Lal Krishna Advani is a Veteran Indian politician. A former president of the Bharatiya Janata Party , which is currently the major opposition party in the Indian Parliament. He also served as a Deputy Prime Minister of India from 2002 to 2004...	Bharatiya Jan Sangh	January 21st 1980 - April 7th 1980
7	P Shiv Shankar	Indian National Congress	December 18th 1989
8	M S Gurupadaswamy	Other	June 28th 1991 - July 21st 1991
9	S. Jaipal Reddy	Congress Rebel	July 22nd 1991 - June 29th 1992
10	Sikander Bakht Sikander Bakht Sikander Bakht was a politician from India. He was one of the Indian statesman and one of tallest leaders of BJP.-Early life:...	Bharatiya Janata Party	July 7th 1992 - May 23rd 1996
11	Shankarrao Chavan Shankarrao Chavan Shankarrao Bhavrao Chavan was an Indian politician who served twice as Chief Minister of Maharashtra from 1975 until 1977 and from 13 March 1986 until 24 June 1988...	Indian National Congress	May 23rd 1996 - June 1st 1996
12	Sikander Bakht	Bharatiya Janata Party	June 1st 1996 - March 19th 1998
13	Dr. Manmohan Singh	Indian National Congress	March 21st 1998 - May 21st 2004
14	Jaswant Singh Jaswant Singh - Career :He is one of the few Indian politicians to have been the Minister for Defence, Finance and External Affairs.He started the new government of Vajpayee, which lasted its full term, as the External Affairs Minister and later on switched his ministry to Finance with Yashwant Sinha...	Bharatiya Janata Party	June 3rd 2009 - 16th May 2010
15	Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley Arun Jaitley is a prominent Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party , which is currently the largest Opposition party in India...	Bharatiya Janata Party	June 3rd 2009 - Present