Union Minister Piyush Goyal has been appointed the deputy leader of the House in Rajya Sabha

Union minster Piyush Goyal has been appointed as the Deputy Leader of the House in Rajya Sabha, sources said, according to news agency Press Trust of India.

The two-time Rajya Sabha lawmaker will be succeeding union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, who has been elected to the Lok Sabha.

Piyush Goyal, the Minister of Railways and Commerce & Industry in the Narendra Modi government, will be deputy to senior BJP leader Thawarchand Gehlot, the Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment.

Mr Gehlot has been chosen as the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha.

Piyush Goyal is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Maharashtra. He was formerly the national treasurer of the BJP.

The BJP has also decided to make Sanjay Jaiswal, the party's Lok Sabha MP from Bihar, its chief whip in the house. He will succeed Anurag Thakur, who has become a minister in the new Modi government.

