The Congress is likely to lose the leader of the opposition post in the Assembly after the Orissa High Court disqualified the party MLA Jogesh Singh, a senior party leader today said.
The Orissa High Court had yesterday disqualified Singh, the party's Sundergarh MLA, for submitting fake caste certificate while filing nomination for the 2014 Assembly elections.
Senior Congress leader Narasingha Mishra, who is presently the Leader of opposition in the Assembly, said the party has technically lost the status after yesterday's Orissa High Court order.
For leader of opposition status, a political party needs to have at least 10 per cent of the total seats in the House.
Odisha Assembly has 147 MLAs.
"As per rule, Congress needs 15 members to become eligible for the leader of opposition status. However, after disqualification of Jogesh Singh, the Congress strength has has come down to 14," Mishra pointed out.
Mishra, however, said that the state government has to take the final decision whether they want a Leader of opposition post or not.
Mishra, also an advocate by profession, said the Congress may retain its leader of opposition party tag if Singh manages to obtain a stay from the Supreme Court on the Orissa High Court's order.
The High Court had declared disqualified Singh's election as "null and void" after hearing petitions filed by BJP candidate Sahadev Xaxa and another voter Ajay Patel who alleged that Singh submitted false and fabricated caste certificate categorising himself as Bhuyan tribe member.
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