Ramesh Kumar elected Speaker of Karnataka Assembly

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 in Kolar district, 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 KR Ramesh Kumar. The Congress-JDS alliance with the support of two independent MLAs has 117 seats in the house.

Fifteen minutes before the election BJP MLA Suresh Kumar on his Twitter account announced that he would withdraw from the contest. Accordingly, BJP MLA Sunil Kumar seconded after Pro tem Speaker G Bopaiah proposed Suresh Kumar's name in the house.