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Rajnath Singh for prime duty after being elected deputy leader of Lok Sabha

As number two he will be in charge when Modi attends BRICS meet

New Delhi: With Union home minister Rajnath Singh being appointed deputy leader of the Lok Sabha on Saturday, it is now more or less clear that he will head the government in the absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The Prime Minister will leave Brazil on Sunday to attend the five-nation Brics summit. Though no official order has yet been put out by the PMO, sources said there are clear signals that Mr Singh will head the government as number two in the Modi setup.

However, finance minister Arun Jaitley, who was expected to accompany the Prime Minister to the Brics summit, has been asked to stay back, giving rise to speculation that, if needed, he too might take charge of the government. It was learnt that there is unlikely to be any Cabinet meeting in the Prime Minister’s absence unless there’s an emergency.

On Saturday, the BJP issued an official release of its parliamentary party’s executive committee. While Mr Singh will be the deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Mr Jaitley will be the deputy leader of the party in the Rajya Sabha.

Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu will be the government chief whip. There has been widespread speculation on the issue of who is going to be number two in Mr Modi’s Cabinet.

Some feel that with Mr Rajnath Singh appointed as deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, the debate on who is number two in the Cabinet has now been settled. Mr Singh will also sit next to the Prime Minister in the Lok Sabha.

That the home minister was all set to be number two also became somewhat clear with the government reconstituting six key Cabinet committees, four of which will be headed by Mr Modi and two by Mr Singh.

The committees reconstituted were on security, economic affairs, political affairs, parliamentary affairs, accommodation and appointments. While Mr Modi will head the Cabinet committees on security, economic affairs, appointments and political affairs, Mr Singh will head the committees on accommodation and parliamentary affairs.

It may be recalled that during the swearing-in ceremony, Mr Rajnath Singh took oath immediately after Mr Modi was sworn in as Prime Minister.
Had the exercise been conducted alphabetically, Mr Jaitley would have been the one taking oath after Mr Modi.

Meanwhile, as per the reconstituted BJP parliamentary party, Mr Modi will be the leader in both Houses of Parliament.
The government deputy chief whip in the Lok Sabha will be Santosh Gangwar and the deputy chief whip in the Rajya Sabha will be Prakash Javadekar.

The BJP chief whip in the Lok Sabha will be Arjun Ram Meghwal and in the Rajya Sabha, it will be Avinash Rai Khanna.

( Source : dc )
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