Chennai: Former Congressman S.R. Balasubramanian, who jumped the ship from TMC on the eve of elections, was on Wednesday appointed as deputy floor leader of AIADMK in Rajya Sabha as party supreme J. Jayalalithaa revamped the parliamentary party.

Ms Jayalalithaa retained P. Venugopal, the Lok Sabha MP from Tiruvallur near Chennai, as the leader of the parliamentary party and Rajya Sabha member A. Navaneethakrishnan as deputy leader. While Venugopal will continue to remain the floor leader in Lok Sabha, Navaneethakrishnan will be the floor leader in Rajya Sabha.

Mr Balasubramanian, who is yet to be sworn-in as MP after he was elected unopposed to the Upper House along with three others, will be the deputy floor leader of the party in Rajya Sabha, while Ms Vijila Sathyanand will be the whip, A.K. Selvaraj the treasurer and A. Vijayakumar the secretary, the statement from J. Jayalalithaa said.

Navaneethakrishnan, appointed as the floor leader of the AIADMK in 2014, has his task cut out since the party has 13 members in the Upper House. The BJP government is heavily banking on the AIADMK’s strength to get several crucial bills passed in the Upper House.