New Delhi: Union Health Minister and senior BJP leader JP Nadda has been appointed the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha today. Nadda also holds the Chemicals and Fertilizers portfolio in the Cabinet. The Union minister will replace Piyush Goyal as the Leader of the House.
During Prime Minister Modi’s second term, Goyal was the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha. After the swearing-in, there was speculation that Nadda would resign from the post of BJP national president, which he took over from current Union Home Minister Amit Shah in 2020.
However, it now seems that Mr Nadda will continue to be the top organisational leader of the BJP. As per party rules, the national president is elected only after organisational elections in 50 per cent of the states are completed, which is expected to last for about six months.
About JP Nadda
The election of the new president is likely to take place in December-January. Nadda, who holds a law degree, began his political journey with the ABVP or Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the BJP. He became the leader of the party’s youth wing, BJYM or Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, in 1991.
He was first elected to the Rajya Sabha from Himachal Pradesh in 2012 and was made a member of the BJP Parliamentary Board in 2014 when Amit Shah took over as party president.
He also previously served as an MLA in the Himachal Pradesh Assembly; he won the Bilaspur seat thrice – in 1993, 1998 and 2007 – and served as health minister between 1998 and 2003.
