The Hindu : Somashekar, AIPJD leader in Assembly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 08, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka

Somashekar, AIPJD leader in Assembly

By Our Staff Reporter

Bangalore July 7. The former minister, B.Somashekar, will be the Floor Leader of the 18-member All-India Progressive Janata Dal in the Legislative Assembly, and Basavaraj Horatti will continue as Floor Leader of the party in the Legislative Council.

Another former minister, M.P.Prakash, MLC, who met the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly, M.V.Venkatappa, and the Council Chairman, B.L. Shankar, separately today presented two lists of members of the AIPJD in the respective Houses. The President of the State unit of the party, C.Byre Gowda, MLA, Mr. Somashekar, and the General Secretary of the party and film actor, B.C.Patil, accompanied him.

He said that of the 19 MLAs elected on the Janata Dal (U) ticket, 18, barring the former minister, P.G.R.Sindhia, were with the new party, and three independent members — Jayaprakash Hegde, Chowda Reddy, and Shivashankar Reddy — had expressed their desire to be associate members. Umesh Katti would be the Deputy Leader and B.N. Bachche Gowda would be the chief whip. Krishnamurthy would be the Secretary of the AIPJD Legislature Party.

The leaders, who later met Mr. Shankar, said that the party had nine members in the House, including the former Law Minister, M.C.Nanaiah, and Manjunath of the Janata Dal. While Mr. Nanaiah had informed in writing his desire to be with the new party, Mr. Manjunath was yet to do that.

In the Council, M.P.Nadagouda would be the Deputy Leader of the party and Honnappa the Chief Whip, while K.V.Subba Reddy would be the Joint Secretary of the legislature party. Mr. Prakash requested Mr. Venkatappa and Mr. Shankar to make seating arrangements for them in both the Houses. The Speaker and the Chairman asked the AIPJD leaders to produce copies of the letter from the Election Commission recognising it as a party. The leaders agreed to do that on Tuesday. Mr. Shankar told a questioner that the Government should have completed the process of electing the Deputy Chairman and nominating three members to the Council, and hoped that it would be done early. Later, Mr. Prakash said that the interaction between leaders of the AIPJD and the Janata Dal (S) would continue. Mr. Prakash said that issues such as corruption, implementation of the midday meal scheme for schoolchildren, and non-payment of money to contractors would be raised in the legislature.

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