BENGALURU: The BJP MLA from Sirsi, Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, was elected unopposed on Wednesday as the new Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly. The 58-year-old politician takes up the post after the previous Speaker Ramesh Kumar resigned on Monday.
Kageri started his career in the RSS and got his first big break in 1994 when he was just 33-years-old. He contested on a BJP ticket from Ankola and with the blessings of stalwarts like BS Yediyurappa and H N Ananth Kumar, he won. Kageri also managed the feat of winning Ankola two more times, even though the constituency had never returned a sitting candidate to the Assembly.
When Sirsi’s reservation status was removed, Kageri shifted from the coast to Sirsi, two hours away and won the last three elections in a row. Kageri counts Jagadish Shettar as a good friend as they entered the state assembly together in 1994. While Shettar went on to become the Speaker, a Minister and a Chief Minister between 2008 and 2013, Kageri in contrast was given the post of Education Minister during the period.
He also counts BJP MLA Govind Karjol as a close friend and is respected in the opposition as well. Congress leader Krishna Byre Gowda, fondly recalled a trip he took with Kageri when a group of legislators visited China for a 10-day-trip.
On Wednesday, after his election, Kageri presided over the last day of this session and called for everyone to uphold the honour and dignity of the house. Kageri said, “I was a first time MLA when Ramesh Kumar was speaker in 1994 and after he resigned, for political reasons, I have taken over as Speaker now,” Kageri said.
However, his past with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) came up for discussion as Ramesh Kumar, in a piece of advice to Kageri said that he should keep himself close to the Indian Constitution as the ‘Manuvad’, a text on the caste system, written by Manu, was opposed to the many fundamental features of the Constitution.