The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday formed its Parliamentary Party Executive Committee with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Leader of the Party in the Lok Sabha.
Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Thawar Chand Gehlot will be the Leader of Party in the Rajya Sabha. Gehlot, who has four decades of legislative experience, succeeds former Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who opted out of the government due to health reasons.
Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be the Deputy Leader of the BJP in the lower house.
Home Minister Amit Shah, who was elected for the first time to Parliament, will be the national president.
Shah, the MP from Gandhinagar, is credited for the massive victory of the BJP in the recently-concluded Lok Sabha elections. The saffron party won 303 seats on its own, bringing the total NDA tally to 353.
Union minister Smriti Irani’s induction in the BJP’s parliamentary party executive committee shows elevation in her stature within the party after she defeated Congress president Rahul Gandhi from the Amethi parliamentary constituency.
It also the first time appointed three women MPs as its whips, specifically for women parliamentarians.
Railway Minister Piyush Goyal will serve as the Deputy Leader of Party in the upper house.
MoS Parliamentary Affairs and former Karnataka BJP chief Pralhad Joshi will be the government’s chief whip.
In Lok Sabha, the party chief whip will be Sanjay Jaiswal, the MP from Bihar’s Paschim Champaran. He will succeed Anurag Thakur, who has become MoS Finance in the new government.
Arjun Ram Meghwal has been named deputy chief whip in the lower house.
Narayan Lal Pancharaiya will be the party’s chief whip in Rajya Sabha and the position of deputy will be held by V Muraleedharan.