The Congress on Tuesday denied that it had asked for a front-row seat for Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha, calling media reports suggesting otherwise propaganda.

The seating row

The denial followed reports that the government had turned down a Congress request for an additional front-row seat. According to those reports, the party had been given only two seats in the first row, for Sonia Gandhi and Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury.

Chowdhury, the Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, responded: “We have proposed seat no. 466 for Rahul Gandhi ji. Desist from false propaganda.”

The number of front-row seats allotted to a party in the Lok Sabha depends on how many members it has in the House.

Background

Rahul Gandhi had recently resigned as Congress president, accepting responsibility for the party’s performance in the 2019 general election, when it won only 52 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats. No successor had yet been named.

The same day, the Congress protested in Parliament over the crisis in Karnataka, where a number of MLAs from the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition had quit, and Gandhi was seen joining in the slogans. He was due to visit Amethi on Wednesday for the first time since losing the seat to the BJP’s Smriti Irani.

What happened next

Sonia Gandhi became interim Congress president in August 2019.

See also: Indian National Congress | Lok Sabha members

Originally published on 10 July 2019. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.

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