India, March 28 -- Will Maharashtra get a Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the legislative assembly even though no opposition party has secured at least 10% of the 288 seats?

To be sure, there is neither any rule regarding the appointment of an LoP based on 10% strength, nor has the position been denied to the opposition when it has secured less seats. In fact, between 1962 and 1989, when the Congress was in power in the state, there were ten instances of opposition parties with less than 20 MLAs bagging the LoP position.

Given this backdrop, the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena (UBT) - which won 20 seats in the assembly polls in November, the highest among opposition parties - submitted an official letter to the assembly speaker on March 4,...