Senior Congress leader Ramesh Kumar elected speaker of Karnataka assembly

Bengaluru 25 May 2018: (Bhatkallys News Bureau) Senior Congress leader KR Ramesh Kumar on Friday was unanimously elected the speaker of Karnataka assembly after BJP candidate Suresh Kumar withdrew his nomination hours before the floor test on Friday. Yeddiyurappa in his address termed the decision to withdraw nomination as "taken to maintain the dignity of the speaker's post" after Kumaraswamy thanked the opposition for unanimously electing the speaker. Suresh had filed nomination for the post of speaker on Thursday against the Congress' Ramesh Kumar. Ramesh who first won the assembly elections in 1978 on Congress ticket moved to JD(s) in 1985 only to move back to Congress in 2004, he has been the party loyalist since. He has also served as the speaker of the assembly from 1994-1999 while he was the member of assembly from JD(s). The high drama for the reign of powers in the southern state has finally settled down, with Congress-JD(s) coalition forming the government only two days after BJP had claimed stakes at forming the government and BS Yediyurappa was sworn-in as the CM of the state. The Congress with the interference from the Supreme Court of India had cut the ways for the saffron party to form the government as it fell short of eight seats in the assembly for simple majority and following Supreme Court's order to cut short the deadline of 15 days set by Governor Vajubhai Vala to two days. The Karnataka after a high-voltage elections was caught with hung assembly with BJP being the single largest party winning 104 constituencies while Congress and JD(s) secured 78 and 37 seats. Kumaraswamy was sworn-in as the 24th CM of the state on May 23 following Yeddiyurappa's resignation before the floor test to avoid certain defeat. (Bhatkallys News Bureau/ Ismail Zaorez)