Advani recommends Ravi Shankar Prasad for deputy leader of BJP in Rajya Sabha

New Delhi: Senior BJP leader LK Advani has written to Hamid Ansari, the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha, recommending Ravi Shankar Prasad's name as the Deputy Leader of the BJP in the Upper House.

Mr Prasad will replace SS Ahluwalia, who retired in May, after losing the elections from Jharkhand. Mr Prasad, the chief spokesperson and general secretary of the BJP, will assist Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley.

The 57-year old Prasad is a lawyer by vocation, and  has served as a minister in the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led NDA government in the Coal, Mining, Law and Justice, and Information and Broadcasting ministries.

The leader from Bihar was recently given a third term in the Rajya Sabha from his state. He had started his political career as an activist in the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the BJP. He was arrested in the JP Movement in Bihar and also actively opposed the National Emergency in the 1970s.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)

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