The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Chandrashekar elected Chairman of Council

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 06, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Chandrashekar elected Chairman of Council

Special Correspondent

The former academic is the 23rd occupant of the post

B.K. Chandrashekar

BANGALORE: B.K. Chandrashekar of the Congress was declared elected as Legislative Council Chairman on Thursday. The 63-year-old former academic, who took over as the 23rd Chairman of the Council, vowed to uphold the dignity and glorious tradition of the House.

Prof. Chandrashekar, who has a law degree from Leeds University and a D.Phil. from Oxford University, was a professor of law at the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore. He was also a University Grants Commission visiting professor at the National Law School of India University in Bangalore besides serving as visiting professor at many universities abroad.

Prof. Chandrashekar, a former Minister, will retire from the Council on June 30, 2008.

Resolutions tabled

As soon as the Council met in the morning, four separate resolutions were tabled by the Opposition Congress members seeking the election of Prof. Chandrashekar as Chairman of the House.

Deputy Chairman Sachidanand Khot put them to vote. Thirty-eight Opposition members supported the candidature of Prof. Chandrashekar while the ruling Janata Dal (S)-Bharatiya Janata Party members neither supported nor opposed his candidature.

Prof. Chandrashekar was declared elected unopposed.

After the election, he went to the Treasury benches and greeted the Janata Dal (S) and BJP members. Leader of the House D.H. Shankaramurthy then led him to the Chairman's seat on the dais, Leader of the Opposition H.K. Patil and Congress whip Salim Ahmed.

Prof. Chandrashekar stressed the need for converting the Council into a non-partisan forum to discuss issues of public importance.

He called upon politicians to learn to be "clean" before preaching to others, as the legislature was being subject to more and more criticism.

Congratulating the new Chairman, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy called on the House to strive to revive the days when the Council witnessed good debates on issues of public importance.

The ruling combine members hailed the election of Prof. Chandrashekar and described him as a mild-mannered person with mature political understanding.

Mr. Patil thanked the Government for helping the Congress candidate to be elected unopposed and also expressed gratitude to Governor T.N. Chaturvedi for his message to the House to hold the election.

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