Congress Ropes In Ahmed Patel, Venugopal In Party Group For Better Parliament Coordination

Meanwhile, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma will stay on as leader of Opposition and deputy leader of Opposition, respectively.

(File Photo/ Getty)

New Delhi: To ensure better coordination and functioning in the upcoming Parliament session, the Congress has brought party veteran Ahmed Patel and party General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal into a new group.  A senior Congress leader linked to the development told IANS, "The post of Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha was lying vacant for which the name of Gaurav Gogoi has been finalised, while Ravneet Bittu has been made the deputy whip of Lok Sabha along with Manickam Tagore." K. Suresh remains the chief whip of Lok Sabha. He further said that Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma will stay on as leader of Opposition and deputy leader of Opposition, respectively, while Jairam Ramesh will remain the chief whip in Rajya Sabha. "Besides these three leaders, Patel and Venugopal have been added in the committee for Rajya Sabha for better functioning and coordination in both the Houses of the Parliament," the Congress leader said. The move comes ahead of the Parliament session scheduled in September. Earlier this week, stormy scenes were witnessed in the Congress Working Committee (CWC) meeting after 23 senior leaders wrote to party interim chief Sonia Gandhi demanding an active leadership to lead the party.