The Chief Whip is the eyes and ears of the leader of the party so far as the members are concerned. He conveys the wishes of the leader to the members of the party and keeps the leader informed of the current opinion in the party as also the moods and inclinations of individual members when these deserve special notice. During the sessions, in his capacity as adviser to the leader, he normally meets the Chief Minister not only for one interview daily but also several times in the course of the day for brief consultation.
The Chief Whip is assisted by one or two whips. With their assistance, he controls the members of the party in power and ensures that during sittings there is quorum in the House and that adequate number of members of the party is present at the time of voting. For this purpose, he sends them advance intimation through the familiar system of ordinary one, two and three line whips to indicate the extent of urgency attached to the vote on a particular measure before the House. Apart from making the House and keeping the House, the Chief Whip has the hand in shaping the course, tone and tenor of debate on special occasions he selects the speakers from his party and hands over a list to the Speaker for facilitating the process of catching his eye.
The responsibility of keeping everybody at his post and keeping his party united, strong and well-knit falls on him. He selects members for select committees and other Parliamentary and Government assignments keeping in view the background, experience, aptitude, qualifications, etc., of members of his party. This gives him quite a wide power of patronage which comes handy in keeping the party members amenable to his influence.
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