Legislative Council dominated by leaders from the coast!

• Speaker, leader of the upper house and opposition leader all from undivided DK

Bengaluru: The Upper House or the Legislative Assembly is now dominated by the leaders from Karavali.  This is the first time that the speaker, leader and the leader of the opposition in the legislative council are all from the undivided Dakshina Kannada (DK) that too in the same term.

The current new speaker is K Pratap Chandra Shetty, the leader of the upper house is Dr Jayamala who is also the minister for Women and Child Development and Empowerment of Differently Abled and Senior Citizens and the leader of the opposition is Kota Srinivas Poojary. As there was an opening for the position of the speaker due to the former speaker Basavaraj Horatti, the empty spot was filled by the selection of Kundapur taluk’s K Pratap Chandra Shetty.

Since the former leader of the opposition in the council K S Eshwarappa was elected from Shimoga City to the Legislative assembly, the position as the leader of the opposition in the council was given to senior MLA Kota Srinivas Poojary.

M R Seetharam who was a minister in the previous Congress minister was also the leader in the Legislative Council. After completion of his term, the position has now come to Dr Jayamala.

Congress strength

This time, only U T Khader was elected from the Congress for the legislative assembly out of the undivided Udupi and DK districts. He is currently the Cabinet Minister for Urban Development and Housing. In Udupi, 5 legislative assembly seats are with the BJP. The selection of K Pratap Chandra Shetty is being considered as a strength to Karavali congress as well.