New faces in front rows, Day 1 for Amit Shah

New Delhi: BJP president Amit Shah made his debut in Parliament on Friday when he attended the proceedings of Rajya Sabha. Allotted seat in the first row of the second block, Mr Shah entered the Upper House just few minutes after the House met for the day in the morning. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leader of the House and finance minister Arun Jaitley sit in the first row of the first block. Members of the treasury benches welcomed Mr Shah by thumping their desks. Earlier, the BJP president went to the Prime Minister’s Office in the Parliament complex to greet Mr Modi.

Mr Shah was elected to the Upper House in August this year from Gujarat after which he resigned from his Naranpura Assembly seat in his home state.

Mr Shah was seated where former Union minister and now Vice President of the country and Rajya Sabha chairman M Venkaiah Naidu used to sit. The BJP president will occupy the row along with  Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution Ram Vilas Paswan, social justice minister Thawar Chand Gehlot and law minister Ravishankar Prasad.

When Mr Shah walked in, treasury benches including Union ministers including Telecom minister Manoj Sinha, Human Resource Development minister Prakash Javedkar and I&B minister Smriti Irani thumped and clapped to welcome him. Some members also walked up to him to greet him.

The front row seats in the block next to Mr Shah has AIADMK, NCP and TMC leaders.

The front rows will also see new faces as CPI(M) decided not to renominate Sitaram Yechury and BSP supremo Mayawati resigned last session. Mr Yechury’s seat will now be occupied by CPI(M)’s T.K. Rangarajan and  BSP’s Satish Chandra Mishra will occupy the front row on his party’s behalf.

JD(U) members have moved near the treasury benches since Nitish Kumar led party has joined the NDA fold. JD(U)’s rebel leader Sharad Yadav, who used to occupy front row, has been allotted another seat.