New Delhi, Jun 12 (IANS): The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday constituted the parliamentary party executive committee appointing Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the leader and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh as the deputy leader in the Lok Sabha.

The party has appointed Union Minister Thaawar Chand Gehlot as leader and Railways Minister Piyush Goyal as his deputy in the Rajya Sabha. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi has been made the government chief whip, according to an official release.

Minister of State (MoS) for Parliamentary Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal will be the party's chief whip in the Lok Sabha, and Minister of State for External Affairs V. Muraleedharan chief whip in the Rajya Sabha.

All these leaders will be part of the 50-member parliamentary party executive committee. Balasubramanyam Kamarsu will continue as the parliamentary secretary.

BJP General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya has been appointed in-charge of parliamentary party office.

Union Ministers Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Arjun Munda, Narendra Singh Tomar, Smriti Irani and senior party MP Jual Oram will be special invitees from the Lok Sabha.

Union Ministers J.P. Nadda, Nirmala Sitharaman, Dharmendra Pradhan, Prakash Javadekar and senior MP Om Prakash Mathur will be special invitees in the committee representing the Rajya Sabha.

The party has appointed 18 whips in the Lok Sabha, including three women MPs and six in the Rajya Sabha.