Pro tem Speaker Malikayya Guttedar on Friday asked BJP member R. Jagadish Kumar (Hebbal) to leave the House after he declined to take oath around 11.30 a.m., saying the time was not auspicious.
Mr. Kumar told the Chair that he would take oath after noon.
“If you are not taking the oath now, then you are not eligible to sit in the House,” Mr. Guttedar told him. Following this, Mr. Kumar left the House.
When Assembly secretary Om Prakash called Mr. Kumar’s name again for taking oath, he was not present in the House.
The pro tem Speaker then commenced the process of the Speaker’s election. Earlier, five newly elected candidates took oath as members of the 14th Legislative Assembly on Friday. With this, 221 elected members took oath in the first two days of the session.
Members who took oath were Fairoz Nuruddin Sait of the Congress (Belgaum North), BSR Congress president B. Sriramulu (Bellary Rural), B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan (Chamarajpet), H.S. Prakash (Hassan), both JD (S), and T.H. Suresh Babu of BSR Congress (Kampli).
The former Minister and Congress member D.K. Shivakumar did not attend the session for the third day on Friday. Mr. Kumar and Mr. Shivakumar are expected to take oath on Monday.
Principal Opposition
Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa formally announced that the Janata Dal (S) was the principal Opposition in the House and H.D. Kumaraswamy Leader of the Opposition.
As both BJP and JD (S) secured 40 each seats in the House, the status of the principal Opposition was decided based on the votes polled by the JD (S) in the elections.
Mr. Thimmappa said the JD (S) secured 25,23,283 votes, while the BJP got 21,27,062 votes in the Assembly elections.
Based on the letters given by party presidents, the former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar is the leader of the BJP Legislature Party while the former Home Minister R. Ashok is the deputy leader. The former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa is the leader of the KJP Legislature Party and B.R. Patil is the deputy leader, the Speaker said.
