BENGALURU: After having pulled off a major political coup last week, the BJP sprung a surprise on Tuesday with its pick for Speaker. While it was widely speculated that Virajpet MLA KG Bopaiah will be the choice, the party leadership worked the phones for over two hours on Monday night and zeroed in on six-term MLA Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri (58). With the Congress and JDS withdrawing from the contest, it will be smooth sailing for Kageri on Wednesday.
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It is believed that Bopaiah’s name was almost finalised as of Monday. “In fact, Bopaiah himself was busy making calls to a few BJP leaders asking them to join him at Vidhana Soudha on Tuesday morning for filing the nomination papers. We don’t know what happened in the interim. None of us, including Kageri himself, knew about the change” said a senior party leader.
Late on Monday night, Kageri got a call from Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa informing him about the change of plan. “The CM also told Kageri to make arrangements to file the nomination,’’ party sources told TNIE.
Decision left Kageri surprised
Between 9 pm and 11.30 pm, BJP leaders from Delhi called the state leaders to make the change. “The central leaders insisted on someone with a clean image being made Speaker and Kageri was chosen,’’ the sources added. Kageri said he was surprised with the move, but did not reveal anything more. “I will speak in the House,’’ was all he said.
Hailing from an agricultural family, Kageri has a humble background and is known for his calm and composed nature. When he was Primary and Secondary Education minister in the Yediyurappa cabinet between 2008-13, two of his daughters continued to study in a government school. In his early days, Kageri was with ABVP when Ananthkumar was state secretary of the Parishat. He earlier represented Ankola in the Assembly and after delimitation of constituencies, he has been winning from Sirsi.
A senior BJP leader said the change was made taking into consideration Bopaiah’s previous record as Speaker. In October 2010, Yediyurappa, who was CM, was facing a trust vote when Bopaiah disqualified five independent MLAs and 11 BJP lawmakers for rebelling against the CM. The issue went to the HC which upheld the Speaker’s decision on disqualifying the MLAs. However, in 2011, the SC not only quashed the HC order, but also made strong observations regarding Bopaiah. “When the person has a history, if we make him Speaker again, we will be giving another opportunity to attack us,’’ he said.
Name: Vishveshwara
Hegde Kageri
Age: 58
Education Qualification: BCom
MLA: Elected six times (since 1994)