The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri was elected as the new Speaker for Karnataka's legislative assembly on Wednesday, July 31.
A six-term MLA from Sirsi, Vishweshwar was elected as the Speaker after Congress leader KR Ramesh Kumar resigned from his post on Monday after the Congress-JDS coalition suffered a major political crisis in the state.
Vishweshwar Hegde was the only person to file nomination for the Speaker's post on Tuesday. According to the reports, the BJP high command had hand-picked Hegde for the post.
Hegde has been a saffron party loyalist from the start of his political career. He was given a party ticket to contest in the 1994 elections from Ankola constituency (now Sirsi), from where he was re-elected twice in 1999 and 2004. He has also served as the minister for primary and secondary education in 2008 during the Yediyurappa government.
Former Speaker Ramesh Kumar resigned a day after he disqualified the 14 MLAs from Congress and JD(S). He had disqualified three other rebel MLAs on Friday (July 27) until the expiry of the current term of the Assembly.
