BANGALORE: Senior Congress leader KagoduThimmappa was on Friday elected speaker of the Karnataka legislative assembly unopposed.
Chief minister Siddaramaiah proposed his name and higher education minister R V Deshpande seconded it. Law and parliamentary affairs minister TB Jayachandra also proposed the candidature of the 82-year-old MLA, which was backed by C S Nadagouda.
After a voice-vote, pro-tem speaker Malikayya Guttedar announced that Thimmappa was elected to the post unanimously.
The octogenarian, who won from the Sagar assembly segment in Shimoga district for the seventh term was the lone candidate who filed nomination papers for the post on Thursday.
Initially, Thimmappa was reluctant to take the position as he was keen to join the Siddaramaiah’s cabinet but he was persuaded by the Congress leadership to change his mind.
Soon after taking charge, Thimappa formally declared that JD (S) legislature party leader H D Kumaraswamy as the main opposition leader of the assembly.
