Thawar Chand Gehlot to be Leader, Piyush Goyal Deputy Leader in Rajya Sabha

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Wednesday announced the formation of an executive committee of the parliamentary party. Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be the leader of the party in Lok Sabha with defence minister Rajnath Singh playing his deputy in the lower house.

In Rajya Sabha, social justice and empowerment minister Thawar chand Gehlot would be the leader of the party with railways and commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal as the deputy leader.

A four-time Lok Sabha and twotime Rajya Sabha MP, Gehlot is the Dalit face of the party, and by making him the leader of the BJP parliamentary party in the Rajya Sabha, it has tried to send out a message to the community. Gehlot has replaced senior leader Arun Jaitley, who has opted out due to health reasons.

The new executive committee will have its first meeting on June 16 at 3:30 pm, a day before the commencement of the session.

Besides, home minister Amit Shah is also part of the executive committee. Among the other appointments, parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi would be the chief whip of the government with Arjun Ram Meghwal as the deputy chief whip in LS and V Muraleedharan as deputy chief whip of the government in the Rajya Sabha.

West Champaran MP Sanjay Jaiswal has been made the chief whip of the party in Lok Sabha while MP from Rajasthan Narayan Lal Panchariya has been made chief whip in the Rajya Sabha.