The 16th Lok Sabha will have no leader of the opposition. It's learnt that Speaker Sumitra Mahajan will strictly go by the rule book which will make no party eligible for the status in the Lower House.

As per rules, any party needs to bag at least 10% of the total seats for its leader to claim the status of the leader of the opposition. Though having the largest contingents among the opposition, Congress with 44 members falls short of the requirement.

Sources said the Speaker, a seasoned parliamentarian, has decided not to use any discretion to tweak the rulebook and stick to the letters of the law.

With no leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, the situation will be the same as it was for 10 years from August 1979 to December 1989 — the 7th and 8th Lok Sabhas.

Without an leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha, the main issues the government will have to deal with is the selection process of Lokpal, chief vigilance commissioner (CVC) and chief information commissioner (CIC). The leader of opposition is part of the selection panel for these posts, in keeping with the spirit of parliamentary democracy.

A government source said if there is no leader of opposition, the selection committee can note that the post is vacant. Another suggestion is there could be provisions to include the leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha in the selection panels. Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad is leader of opposition in the Upper House.

From the first leader of opposition in Lok Sabha, Ram Subhag Singh in 1969, to YB Chavan, Jagjivan Ram, Rajiv Gandhi, L K Advani, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, PV Narasimha Rao, Sonia Gandhi, Advani (again) and Sushma Swaraj, the 10% rule was considered. "This tradition has to be undone, if the Speaker decides on a leader of opposition this time," law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said while speaking to TOI on the issue.

Earlier, parliamentary affairs minister M Venkaiah Naidu had also hinted at a situation where there will be no leader of opposition in LS. "The Congress will be one of the opposition parties, but the leader of opposition issue is a realm of the Speaker. There was no leader of opposition during Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi's time," he had said while replying to questions from media on the issue.