Rahul Gandhi is Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha: Here are the parliamentary positions he held before

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will occupy the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and a letter about the decision has been sent to Pro-tem Speaker Bhartruhari Mahtab by the Congress party.

The decision on Rahul Gandhi's appointment as the Leader of Opposition was announced soon after a meeting of the floor leaders of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc at Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's residence on Tuesday.

AICC general secretary, Organisation, K C Venugopal told the media that CPP chairperson Sonia Gandhi has written to the Pro-tem Speaker about the decision of the Congress party.

While this will be the first constitutional position that Rahul Gandhi would hold in his long political career of over two-and-a-half decades, here are all the other Parliamentary positions the Congress leader has held in the past.

• In 2019, Rahul Gandhi was elected as a member of the Lok Sabha for the fourth term and served as a member of the Standing Committee on Defence. The committee provides legislative oversight of the defence policies and decision-making of the Ministry of Defence.

• In the same year, he also served as a member of the Consultative Committee for the Ministry of External Affairs.

• In 2014 he was elected to the Lok Sabha for the third term when he became a member of Standing Committee on External Affairs, a department that oversees foreign policy, and decision-making of the Ministry of External Affairs. Along with this, the Congress leader was also a member of the Consultative Committee on Ministry of Finance and Corporate Affairs.

• In 2004, Rahul Gandhi was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha for the first time. He served as a member of the Standing Committee on Home Affairs from 2004 to 2006. After this, he became a member of the Standing Committee on Human Resource Development from 2006-2009, only to be re-elected as a member of Standing Committee on Human Resource Development in 2009. In the same year, he also served as a member of the Consultative Committee on Rural Development.

Rahul Gandhi, who turned 54 last week, is the scion of the Nehru-Gandhi family. He has been an MP for five terms and currently represents the Rae Bareli constituency in the Lok Sabha, previously held by his mother Sonia Gandhi. He took oath as an MP on Tuesday while holding a copy of the Constitution.

Though he won from two constituencies -- Wayanad in Kerala and Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh -- he resigned from the Wayanad constituency, from where his sister Priyanka Gandhi Vadra would now contest.

Rahul Gandhi entered politics in 2004 when he won for the first time from Amethi in Uttar Pradesh.

(With PTI inputs)