Karnataka: Know the procedures involved before the BSY govt is finally formed in the state

The BJP may have wrestled its way to establish its government in Karnataka under the chief ministership of BS Yeddyurappa, but the CM's worries are far from over. The saffron party's real test lies in electing the Assembly speaker who will ultimately reserve the right to conduct the floor test. According to Constitutional experts, the process to elect a speaker is three-pronged.

After the CM takes oath, the Governor nominates the senior-most member of the House as the Protem Speaker to administer the oath to freshly-elected representatives. Congress MLA and former revenue minister RV Deshpande has been appointed as the Protem Speaker, who will now run the procedure of electing the Speaker.

In the 224-seat Karnataka Assembly, the BJP has so far got 104 MLAs while the Congress has 78 and the JD(S) 38. The rest two are independent MLAs.

"Once the oath is administered to the MLAs, the Governor will decide the day when the House meets to elect the Speaker. The notice will be issued to all MLAs of the Karnataka State assembly to attend this meeting. As per the norm, this meeting has to be called before noon," said an expert, who knows about the selection procedure of the Assembly.

There are more caveats too. If there is only one nomination for the Speaker's post, then he/she will be declared as elected Speaker without an election. "If there are more nominations, then the Protem Speaker will have to hold the election through the secret ballot method. The person who gets the largest votes of the MLAs in House, he/she will be declared as the Speaker of the Assembly," said the expert requesting anonymity.

Another political expert said the elected Speaker will have the right to conduct floor test as per the demand of the majority. "In the floor test, if the BJP gets a majority in the House, then Yeddyurappa will continue to be the CM. If he loses, then he will have no right to remain as the CM. In case if there are equal numbers of votes on both sides, then the Speaker will have the right to cast his decisive vote. The floor test can be conducted as per the members' demand, either through a secret ballot or raising of hands or a voice vote," added the expert.

Going by how the numbers are pitted between the BJP and Congress-JDS, it is believed that the Congress-JDS has a fair chance of electing a Speaker from their own fold. This is crucial as the BJP does not have a simple majority on the floor of the house in the Karnataka assembly.