The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Council will soon have 17 new members

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Thursday, Jun 26, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Council will soon have 17 new members

S. Rajendran

Five nominated members were sworn in on Monday

BANGALORE: The Legislative Council will have 22 new members, including the five nominated ones who were sworn in on Monday, shortly. It is for the first time in over three decades that the Council will have nearly a third of its 75 members being inducted in a short span of time.

It will also be a rare occasion in the history of the Upper House when both the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman retire the same day. The vacancies in the prestigious “house of elders” commenced from 2004 thanks to the coalition Governments. Both Chairman B.K. Chandrashekar and Deputy Chairman Sachidanand Khot retire on June 30 and they have not been re-nominated to the Council by their parties.

The Chief Minister, B.S. Yeddyurappa, who was authorised by the State Cabinet to finalise the five government nominations, has just completed the exercise.

Secondly, the elections to the seven seats from the Legislative Assembly have just been completed. The 75-member Upper House comprises 25 members elected from local authorities, 25 members elected from the Legislative Assembly, seven members elected from graduates constituencies, seven members elected from teachers constituencies and 11 members nominated by the Government.

Incidentally, the Janata Dal (S)-Bharatiya Janata Party Government commenced its rule in February 2006 with an understanding on the sharing of the nominations to the Legislative Council. This was part of the agreement reached between the two parties but was never implemented. This has now come in handy for the BJP which can nominate (persons of eminence) to the five seats.

Those who will retire on June 30 include Saleem Ahmed, D. Made Gowda, Rathna V. Kushnoor, Prof. Chandrashekar and Kattimani Ashok (all of Congress) V.S. Acharya (BJP) and Sachidananda L. Khot (Janata Dal-S). [Dr. Acharya was re-elected from the Assembly recently.]

A total of six seats have fallen vacant from the batch to retire in 2010. This includes Aravind Limbavali and Shobha Karandlaje who were elected to the Lower House in the recent elections and are now Ministers.

Yet another vacancy is the one caused by the death of Blasius D’Souza of the Congress. Then, Basavaraj Bommai (Minister for Water Resources) and C.S. Arun Machaiah have also quit to create more vacancy. There are two seats that will be vacant in the graduates constituency on June 30. These seats are held by H.K. Patil of the Congress and H.S. Shivashankar of Janata Dal(S). Two seats of the teachers constituencies, Shashil Namoshi and B. Puttanna, will also fall vacant.

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