The 15th Legislative Assembly of Karnataka (2018-2023) met for 167 days and passed 200 Bills related to various subjects and departments during its five-year term, and had many distinctive features, including three people occupying the chief ministerial post.
The House met for 760 hours during the five-year period. More than 6,000 starred questions and 25,988 unstarred questions were tabled in the House and provided answers.
Only two MLAs — C.M. Nimbannavar of the BJP representing Kalghatgi constituency in Dharwad district, and K.S. Lingesh of the JD(S) representing Belur in Hassan district — attended all days of the session during the five years, Speaker Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri informed at the end of the session. Both spoke and recalled their experiences in sessions.
In COVID-19 times
During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the House met for 31 days, which was the highest among all States in the country in that year. This was noted by PRS Legislative Research.
This term, the House constituted the Best MLA award. The first award was given to the former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. Congress veteran R.V. Deshpande was the second MLA to bag the award and he was given the award during the winter session of the legislature in Belagavi in 2022.
‘Operation Lotus’ and after
This term saw as many as 14 Congress MLAs and three JD(S) MLAs switching over to the BJP, which led to the collapse of the Congress–JD(S) coalition government and formation of the BJP government in 2019 through “Operation Lotus”.
The five-year term saw three Chief Ministers — first by the coalition government led by H.D. Kumaraswamy, second by the BJP government led by Mr. Yediyurappa and the present BJP government led by Mr. Bommai. The House witnessed two Speakers — K.R. Ramesh Kumar (Congress) during the coalition government and later Mr. Kageri.
As many as nine MLAs passed away during the five years and prominent among them were C.M. Udasi, Umesh Katti, and Anand Mamani (Deputy Speaker). As Mamani died on October 23, 2022, the House did not elect a new Deputy Speaker. Kumar Bangarappa (BJP) “unofficially” served as the Deputy Speaker of the House.
The 15th Assembly was the BJP veteran Mr. Yediyurappa’s last term and he had already announced that he would not contest the forthcoming elections to the Lower House.
On anti-defection law
As the Speaker, Mr. Kageri attended many presiding officers’ conferences in India and abroad. He also served as the member of a three-member committee set up by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to review the relevance of the Constitution’s 10th schedule introduced in 1985 to check defections (anti-defection law) and the panel submitted its report.
