Maiden session of 14th Assembly begins today

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Bangalore, May 28, 2013: The maiden session of the 14th Legislative Assembly will commence on Wednesday. The first two days of the session will witness the newly elected members take oath.

Election for the post of the Speaker will be held on Friday. Governor H R Bhardwaj will deliver his address to the joint session on June 3. The session will conclude on June 7. The Legislative Council will sit from June 4 to 7.

While Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will occupy the first chair in the treasury benches, three former chief ministers H D Kumaraswamy (JD-S), Jagadish Shettar (BJP) and B S Yeddyurappa (KJP) will sit in the Opposition.

The Congress has a comfortable majority of 121 members in the 224-strong House. Election to Periyapatna constituency in Mysore was adjourned following the death of the BJP candidate. The election in the constituency was held on Wednesday and counting will be taken up on May 31.

The Opposition benches will have 40 members each from the JD(S) and the BJP, six from the KJP, four from the BSR Congress and 12 others including nine Independents.

JD(S) will be recognised as the principal Opposition party and its leader Kumaraswamy as the Leader of the Opposition though the party and the BJP won 40 seats in the Assembly polls. This is by virtue of JD(S)’ higher vote share in the polls.

The newly elected members will take oath from protem speaker and senior Congress leader Malikayya V Guttedar during the first two days. Congress veteran Kagodu Thimmappa is likely to be elected as the Speaker.

First-timers
Term-wise, Higher Education Minister R V Deshpande and Yeddyurappa will be senior most members with both having been elected for the seventh time. Age-wise, Agriculture Marketing Minister, the 84-year-old Shamanur Shivashankarappa is the oldest, while Priya Krishna of the Congress at 29 is the youngest.

There will be 56 first-time members in the Assembly compared to 91 in the last Assembly. Congress has the largest number of new faces (25), followed by the JD-S (17) and BJP (5). There are six women members in the 14th Assembly.

The present Assembly has two father-son combination in Shamanur Shivashankarappa and S S Mallikarjun and M Krishnappa and Priya Krishna (all Congress).

In the Opposition will sit brothers Kumaraswamy and H D Revanna. Three from the Jarkiholi family have made it to the Assembly, Excise Minister Satish (Congress - Yemkanmardi), Balachandra (BJP-Arabhavi) and Ramesh (Congress-Gokak).

Ajay Singh, son of former chief minister N Dharam Singh and Priyank Kharge, son of Union Labour Minister M Mallikarjun Kharge, will enter the Assembly for the first time.

Courtesy: Deccan Herald