Pratap Chanda Shetty to become Council speaker: Udupi district feels honoured

Kundapur: The election for the appointment of the new speaker for the Legislative Council will be held on Dec 12^th. The unanimous election of Congress senior leader Pratap Chandra Shetty is mostly confirmed. Mr Shetty will be the first Speaker to be elected from Udupi district and also will be the second Speaker to be elected from the undivided Dakshina Kannada (DK) district.

Bank employee

Mr Shetty who comes from Haikady in Kundapur taluk worked as a bank employee with Vijaya Bank after completing his graduation in BA. After the demise of his father, Mr Shetty left his bank job and got involved with farming.

In Congress

Pratapchandra has given his service as Youth Congress Chief Secretary, Kundapur Youth Congress President, Udupi District Congress President, KPCC Vice President and as a member of AICC.

As an MLA

He has been continuously elected as Kundapur MLA four times from 1983 to 1999. Since 2003 to till date he has been elected thrice to the Legislative Council and has been representing the local institutions of Udupi and DK districts. He is known amongst the people to be a leader who priority to reaching popular care programmes to the poor people first. Mr Shetty is farmers oriented, was also the founder of the Udupi District Farmers Association and responded to the problems faced by the farmers and fought for them.

First Speaker

From 1968 to 1970, Mangaluru’s K K Shetty was the leader of the Legislative Council. Vaikunta Balia was the speaker of the Legislative Council from 1962-68. Yogish Bhat was the Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Assembly.

“I have never asked for any position or honour. This time too I was not in the list of the aspirants. The party has considered my history and selected me for the position. Since only one nomination has been submitted, the official announcement will be done on Wednesday,” said Pratap Chandra Shetty