BJP names Kota Shrinivas Poojari as Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council
Bengaluru (PTI): The Karnataka BJP on Monday announced the appointment of senior party MLC and former Minister Kota Shrinivas Poojari as the Leader of Opposition in the state Legislative Council, and MLA Arvind Bellad as Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly.
The BJP also has also appointed its MLCs Sunil Vallyapure and N Ravikumar respectively as the Deputy Leader of Opposition and its Chief Whip respectively in the legislative council -- the upper house; while party MLA Doddanagouda G Patil has been named as the Chief Whip in the lower house of the state legislature.
In a press release announcing these appointments, state BJP President B Y Vijayendra said, "appointments have been made as per the directions of party national President J P Nadda." After the Assembly polls in May in which Congress swept to power, the BJP participated in two legislature sessions -- in July and earlier this December -- without appointments to these key posts, which had drawn large-scale criticism from ruling Congress and some sections of the society.
In fact, the post of legislature party leader or leader of Opposition in the Assembly too was vacant till November, until R Ashoka was appointed, ahead of the legislature session earlier this month.
After the appointment of Ashoka as the LoP and Vijayendra as the party's state unit president in November, which led to some amount of disgruntlement in the BJP, there was a lot of speculation within the party, as to who will occupy other key legislature posts -- for which appointments were made today-- amid large number of aspirants and lobbying.
Poojari, who hails from Billava community and has a Sangh Parivar background, has already served as both leader of the house and opposition leader in the Legislative Council.
The appointment of Bellad and Patil as Deputy Leader of Opposition and chief whip in the Legislative Assembly respectively is significant considering that both hail from the north Karnataka region, as there was open disgruntlement in the state BJP, about the region not being given enough representation, after Ashoka and Vijayendra were given posts.
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New Rajya Sabha members take oath
New Delhi (PTI): NCP-SCP leader Sharad Pawar and Union Minister Ramdas Athawale were among 19 new Rajya Sabha members who took oath here on Monday.
The oath was taken in the presence of Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan. Deputy Chairman Harivansh and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju were present during the ceremony in the Rajya Sabha chamber.
Floor leaders of respective parties were also present in the House.
The newly elected members comprised five from Maharashtra, six from Tamil Nadu, five from West Bengal and three from Odisha.
Maya Chintaman Ivnate of the BJP unit in Maharashtra was the first to take the oath, followed by Pawar, who arrived in a wheelchair.
Ramrao Sakharam Wadkute (BJP), Jyoti Nagnath Waghmare (SS) and Athawale (RPI-A) also took oath as members representing Maharashtra in the Upper House.
Manmohan Samal (BJP), Sanrupt Mishra (BJD) and Dilip Kumar Ray (Ind) took oath as members from Odisha, while Constandine Ravindran (DMK), Christopher Manickam (Congress), L K Sudhish (DMDK), M Thambidurai (AIADMK), Tiruchi Siva (DMK) and Ambumani Ramadoss (PMK) took oath as members representing Tamil Nadu.
From West Bengal, Babul Supriya Baral (AITC), Biswajit Sinha (BJP), Menaka Guruswamy (AITC), Rajeev Kumar (AITC) and Rukmini Mallik (AITC) took oath.
Most members took oath in their respective regional languages.
Chairman Radhakrishnan congratulated all the newly elected members.
