Bengaluru: Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri is the new Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly. He filed his nominations on Tuesday (July 30) and was elected unopposed. Interestingly, neither the Congress nor JD(S) fielded any candidate.

Kageri is a six-time MLA and presently represents the Sirsi constituency in Uttara Kannada. Earlier, he was also a minister for primary and secondary education.

Kageri was a student of Karnatak University, from where he earned his B Com degree. He was also a leader of Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) in his student days and considered one of the most influential leaders of his time.

He was elected to the Assembly for the first time from the constituency of Ankola in the year 1994. He was a three-time MLA from the same constituency. Later, after the delimitation, he stood from the Sirsi constituency. He is known for his discipline.

The Speaker’s post fell vacant as on Monday (July 29) Speaker Ramesh Kumar put in his papers after the newly sworn-in chief minister BS Yediyurappa proved his majority on the floor of the House and the House unanimously passed the Finance Bill.

For the last two weeks or so, the Assembly witnessed chaos as the then chief minister HD Kumaraswamy dilly-dallied in proving his majority, with 17 Congress and JD(S) MLAs bidding goodbye to the coalition government. Finally, on July 22, the government collapsed as motion was put to vote and the BJP secured 105 seats, as against the coalition’s 99.

The then Speaker Kumar was even alleged of bias, favouring the coalition.

It must be noted that two more names from the BJP — KG Bopaiah (Madikeri MLA) and Suresh Kumar (Rajajinagar MLA) — were making the rounds. But as is evident, the BJP decided to go in with Kageri.