BJP's JP Nadda replaces Piyush Goyal as Leader of House in Rajya Sabha

JP Nadda replaces Union minister Piyush Goyal, who recently won the Lok Sabha elections and on Monday took oath as a member of the Lower House

BJP president and Union minister Jagat Prakash Nadda has been named Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha, official sources said on Monday.

Nadda replaces Union minister Piyush Goyal, who recently won the Lok Sabha elections and on Monday took oath as a member of the Lower House.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha.

Besides Nadda, there are 11 members of the Upper House who are in the Union Council of Ministers.

Meanwhile, Nadda on Monday wrote to Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, questioning the "stoic silence" of his party on the recent hooch tragedy which left several people dead in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu hooch tragedy was entirely a "man-made disaster", Nadda said in his letter to Kharge, adding "perhaps if the deep nexus between the ruling DMK-INDI alliance dispensation and illicit liquor mafia did not exist today, 56 lives could have been saved".

Nadda said the ghastly images of burning funeral pyres from Karunapuram village in Kallakurichi in the aftermath of Tamil Nadu's "worst ever' spurious liquor consumption tragedy, that has left 56 dead until now and almost 159 persons hospitalised, has shaken the conscience of the entire nation".

"Kharge ji, as you know Karunapuram is largely populated by the Scheduled Castes, who face several challenges due to poverty and discrimination in Tamil Nadu. In light of this, I was shocked that when such a huge disaster has taken place, the Congress party led by you, has maintained a stoic silence on this," the BJP president said.