BENGALURU: Weeks after Parliament member from Karnataka, Mallikarjun Kharge, was chosen as the Opposition Leader in the Rajya Sabha, another parliamentarian from the state, Dr Syed Naseer Hussain, has been appointed as the Congress party whip in the Upper House. Senior party leader Jairam Ramesh, who too is an MP from Karnataka, is the party’s Chief Whip.
The Congress has 38 members in the Rajya Sabha. Functionally, the Chief Whip and the Whip will coordinate with Congress members and leaders and members of the Opposition parties. They will also attend the Business Advisory Committee meetings which decides on the duration of the House session. The two leaders will be decide on who gets to speak and the order of speakers, whether to vote, abstain or walk out and other nitty gritty of the party’s stand in the House.
A former student leader, Hussain was president of Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ association. He has also been in the forefront of the Opposition protest over the farm Bills in the Rajya Sabha and outside. Reacting to the appointment, Rajya Sabha member L Hanumanthaiah, who is an empanelled Deputy Chairman in the House, said, “It is a matter of honour that Karnataka has got so much recognition in the party.
In addition to Congress MPs Oscar Fernandes, Jairam Ramesh, L Hanumanthaih, G C Chandrashekar and Naseer Hussain, Karnataka also has the lone JDS MP, H D Deve Gowda, in the Upper House. As a parliamentarian, he headed two labour boards — the Child Labour Board and Cigarette and Beedi Workers’ Board — during the UPA era.