Yeddyurapa to prove majority: Who will be the pro-tem Speaker for Karnataka floor test?

The Governor has granted 15 days time for the newly-sworn-in Chief Minister of Karnataka, BS Yeddyurappa to prove majority on the floor of the house. Currently, Karnataka does not have a Speaker and thus a Protem Speaker has to be elected to conduct the floor test for the invited party to prove its majority.

In Karnataka, the names of RV Deshpande of Congress and Umesh Katthi of BJP are doing the rounds for the same. The reason for these two names cropping up is that they are seniors and both have been elected more than seven times as MLAs.

Yeddyurappa has already been sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka and needs to prove majority because BJP has emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats, but lacks eight votes for simple majority.

Whereas Congress and JD(S) alliance has more numbers than simple majority (78+38+2 independents). However, the Governor invited Yeddyurappa to form the government on May 17. Now, Yeddyurappa has 15 days to prove majority, but needs a Speaker to be elected temporarily to conduct the floor test.

The Speaker, who is appointed for this cause is called the Pro-tem Speaker, who is appointed solely for this purpose and will not exercise any other power. Thus, the political affiliation of the Pro-tem speaker remains ignored. Accordingly, a list of senior Legislative Assembly members, irrespective of parties, is submitted to the Assembly Secretariat, who will send the names to the Governor, who has the right to choose the pro-tem speaker.

Here are four factors which decide the eligibility criteria to be the Pro-tem Speaker.

1) Firstly, the person being considered must be a citizen of India

2) The person must not be less than 25 years of age

3) The person should not hold any office of profit under the Government of India or under the Government of any other state

4) The person should be one of the senior most elected leaders

Last Updated May 17, 2018, 7:46 PM IST