Bharatiya Janata Party president and Union minister JP Nadda was on Monday named the Leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha.

Nadda, who is in charge of the health and chemicals and fertilisers ministries, replaced party colleague and Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal, who took the oath during the day as a member of the Lok Sabha.

Goyal won from the Mumbai North constituency in the recently-concluded general elections.

In February, Nadda was nominated by the BJP to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat. He resigned from the Upper House as a representative from Himachal Pradesh on March 4 as his term was ending on April 2. He was then elected unopposed from Gujarat.

This is Nadda’s third term as a member of the Rajya Sabha. He was first elected to the Upper House in 2012.

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

Following his appointment on Monday, Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Jairam Ramesh congratulated Nadda on social media. “As [former Vice President] Venkaiah Naidu garu might have said - if the Leader of the House can accommodate, the Opposition can cooperate,” he said.