JDS, Congress in huddle before floor test

Ahead of floor test and election for Speaker's post, both JDS and Congress MLAs held the last round of meeting in Chief Minister's office and in the first floor of Vidhan Soudha respectively on Friday. Congress MLAs were holed up in a Hilton Hotel and held a meeting before they left for the Legislative Assembly. The proceedings in the assembly would begin at 12.15 pm.

The Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting presided over by former CM Siddaramaiah. According to reports, the Janata Dal (Secular) has issued a whip to its MLAs and Congress to issue whip shortly.

Former minister and BJP MLA Suresh Kumar filed his nomination for Speaker' post on Thursday. 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.

Ramesh Kumar served as Speaker during the H.D. Deve Gowda and J.H. Patel governments in the State (1994-99).

Pro-tem Speaker G Bopaiah will preside over the election of new Speaker. Later, the new speaker will preside over the floor test.

Meanwhile, legislative party meeting of all 104 BJP MLAs is underway in Shangri La hotel. After the meeting, they will leave for Vidha Soudha in a bus.