Kambar to head Sahitya Akademi

Karnataka Bengaluru :13/12/2015: Writer Chandrashekar Kambar adressing the gather during the inauguration of Centre for Child and the Law, National Law School of India University: State-level consultation meeting to discuss The role of School Development and Monitoring Committee Coordination Forum in strengthening government schools, in Bengaluru on Sunday., Photo: Sampath Kumar G P

Kannada litterateur Chandrashekar Kambar has been elected as president of the Sahitya Akademi in the election held for the post on Monday. Hindi poet Madhav Koushik has been elected as vice-president.

Prof. Kambar is the third Kannada writer to head the country’s premier literary institution, after Vinayak Krishna Gokak (1983) and U.R. Ananthamurthy (1993).

According to sources in the Akademi, Prof. Kambar secured 56 votes, while his nearest contender and Odia writer Prathiba Ray got 29 votes. Marathi writer Balachandra Nemade, who was also a ‘symbolic’ contestant, secured four votes.

This is the second time election was held in the history of Sahitya Akademi, after Ananthamurthy’s election to the post.

Prof. Kambar has served as member of the Akademi executive board for over 10 years and was vice-president for 2013-18.