Vishweshwar Hegde Elected Speaker of Karnataka Assembly

BJP leader Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, a six-term Karnataka legislator and former state education minister, was elected on Wednesday as Speaker of the state assembly, replacing outgoing speaker KR Ramesh Kumar, who resigned soon after the newly-installed government of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa won a trust vote on Monday.

Last week, the 14-month-old coalition of the Congress and Janata Dal Secular fell after the resignation of 16 lawmakers brought down the majority mark in the house to 105, the current strength of the BJP in the assembly. The Congress-JDS alliance managed only 99 votes.

At expiry of the deadline at 12 noon, Kageri, six- time MLA was the only one to have filed the papers for the post which fell vacant after KR Ramesh Kumar quit on Monday.

Vishweshwar Hedge Kageri ,58, who represent the sirsi constituency in Uttara Karnataka was accompanied by Chief Minister B S 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 M K Vishalakshi.

The election of Kageri would be formally announced when the Assembly meets on Wednesday, BJP sources said.