News Brief
Nishtha Anushree
Jun 24, 2024, 05:16 PM | Updated 05:16 PM IST
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Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president J P Nadda has been appointed as the Leader of the House of the Rajya Sabha. Nadda replaces Piyush Goyal as the latter was chosen as the Lok Sabha MP from Mumbai North.
The decision comes on the first day of the 18th Parliament. The monsoon session began today in the Lok Sabha with newly elected members taking oath. Rajya Sabha will begin functioning after joint sessions of the two Houses on Wednesday.
Nadda was among the four BJP members re-nominated to the Rajya Sabha earlier this year. Three others were Cabinet Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of State L Murugan and party spokesperson Sudhanshu Trivedi.
Meanwhile, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has been the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha since February 2021.
Nadda is also the Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ministry in the Narendra Modi government. With the latest responsibility, he will have to vacate the position of BJP national president.
While the BJP has not taken any decision yet, Sunil Bansal, Om Mathur, Vinod Tawde and Devendra Fadnavis are among the prospective names being speculated as the future BJP president.
Nishtha Anushree is Senior Sub-editor at Swarajya. She tweets at @nishthaanushree.