Bengaluru: Senior BJP leader and six time MLA Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri was on Wednesday unanimously elected the 22nd Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.
The election of the Speaker was necessitated after K R Ramesh Kumar resigned from the post on Monday, soon after Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa proved majority on the floor of the assembly, three days after he was sworn in.
Kageri, MLA from Sirsi, who had filed his nominationon Tuesday, was elected unopposed, as Congress and JD(S) did not field a candidate against him.
Kageri, a staunch RSS man, who began his careerwith the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, was a surprise pick as former Speaker K G Bopaiah's name was doing the rounds.
As the House met for the day, Deputy Speaker Krishna Reddy initiated the election process and Yediyurappa proposed Kageri's name, which was seconded by Basvaraj Bommai (BJP).
Following this, the proposal to elect Kageri was adopted by a voice vote.
Then Yediyurappa and Congress Legislature party leader Siddaramaiah escorted Kageri to the Speaker's chair. On assuming office as the Speaker, Kageri thanked the members of the House for unanimously electing him.
Defending his Sangh Parivar links,over which some members passed some comments while congratulating him on becoming theSpeaker, Kageri said he was a swayamsevak and was in RSS.
