Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri elected Karnataka Assembly Speaker

Senior BJP MLA Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri on Wednesday was elected as speaker of Karnataka assembly. Vishweshwar was the only candidate to file his nomination papers for the post on Tuesday. "We received only one nomination that was of Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri," an official in the Karnataka assembly secretariat had said.

After being an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, student wing of the Sangh Pariwar, Kageri climbed up the political ladder. Kageri got elected to the Karnataka assembly from Ankola assembly seat in 1994 and since then there has been no looking back. Kageri had also served as the minister for primary and secondary education.

Chief minister BS Yediyurappa and BJP leaders Govind Karjol, R Ashok, Jagadish Shettar, K S Eshwarappa and S Suresh Kumar were present when Kageri submitted his nominations to the Karnataka Assembly secretary MK Vishalakshi.

Ramesh Kumar had resigned after a 14-month long tenure under the Congress-JDS coalition government on Monday after the three-day old B S Yediyurappa ministry won the vote of confidence in the assembly.

A Congress spokesperson said the party did not field any candidate because the BJP has the majority and it has been the convention of electing the speaker unopposed. The JDS spokesperson too echoed the same views.

BS Yediyurappa had won the floor test at Vidhana Soudha through voice vote on Monday. Moving the confidence motion, Yediyurappa said, “When Siddaramaiah and HD Kumaraswamy were CMs they didn't indulge in vindictive politics. Administration has failed and we'll set it right. I assurance the House that we won't indulge in vindictive politics either. I believe in forget and forgive" Striking somewhat reconciliatory note, senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah said, “We discussed HD Kumaraswamy's confidence motion over 4 days. I too participated in that and I don't wish to speak about it. I could've spoken about circumstances under which Yediyurappa became CM.I wish him well and welcome his assurance that he'll work for people.”