Karnataka Deputy CM Savadi takes oath as MLC

Bengaluru, Feb 18 (IANS) Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi took oath as a member of the Legislative Council (MLC), a day after he was elected to the Upper House in a straight contest, an official said here on Tuesday.

"Legislative Council Chairman K. Pratapachandra Shetty administered the oath of office to Savadi in Kannada on the second day of the budget session," the official told IANS.

Savadi won the contest by 113 votes, defeating Anil Kumar, who was backed by the Congress and the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) on Monday.

Savadi, one of the three Deputy Chief Ministers in the 6-month Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, joined the B.S. Yediyurappa Ministry on August 20. As Savadi was not a member of the either House he had to become a member of the Assembly by February 19.

Savadi lost the May 2018 Assembly elections from the Athani seat to Mahesh Kumathalli of the Congress.

Ironically, Kumathalli, who quit the Congress to join the BJP in November and was re-elected from Athani in the December 5 by-election, has remained out of the ministry. Even in the February 6 Ministry expansion, while the other 10 defectors were induscted in the government his name didn't figure in the list of Ministers.

The vacancy in the Karnataka Legislative Council was caused by the resignation of Congress member Rizwan Arshad, who got elected to the Assembly in the December 5 by-election from the Shivajinagar seat in central Bengaluru.