Karnataka Assembly, Ramesh Kumar elected as Speaker

KR Ramesh Kumar, Congress-JDS nominee six-time MLA, has been unanimously elected as Speaker of Karnataka Assembly on Friday. BJP's Suresh Kumar withdrew his nomination after consultation with the BJP legislative committee. 

Pro-tem Speaker G Bopaiah presided over the election of new Speaker. Former CM Siddaramaiah proposed Ramesh Kumar for Speaker' post and this was seconded by Deputy CM G Parameshwara. Six-time MLA from Srinivaspur, Kolar Ramesh Kumar had served as Speaker during the H.D.Deve Gowda and J.H. Patel governments in the State (1994-99).

The Congress candidate KR Ramesh Kumar defeated GK Venkatashivareddy of JD(S) by a margin 10,552 votes in the recently concluded assembly election. Though the BJP has 104 MLAs, the party decided to give a tough fight for Congress-JDS nominee six-time MLA KR Ramesh Kumar. The Congress-JDS alliance with the support of two independent MLAs has 117 seats in the house.