Type Lower house Leader of the House Siddaramaiah, INC Seats 225
(2 vacant) | Speaker KB Koliwad, INC Leader of the Opposition Jagadish Shettar, BJP | |
 | ||
Deputy Speaker Shivashankara Reddy N.H, INC | ||
The Karnataka Legislative Assembly is the lower house of the bicameral legislature of Karnataka state in southern India. Karnataka is one of the seven states in India, where the state legislature is bicameral, comprising two houses. The two houses are the Vidhana Sabha (lower house) and the Vidhana Parishat (upper house).
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The members of the Vidhana Sabha are directly elected by people through adult franchise. The members of the Vidhana Parishat are elected indirectly by members of local bodies, teachers and graduates.
There are 75 members of the Vidhana Parishat. Members of the Vidhana Parishat or Legislative Council normally have a term of six years, and are generally known as MLCs.
There are 224 members of the Vidhana Sabha or the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka state. One member is a representative of the Anglo-Indian community nominated by the Governor of Karnataka. The state of Karnataka is divided into 225 constituencies used to elect the Legislative assembly.
Each constituency elects one member of the assembly. Members are popularly known as MLAs. The assembly is elected using the simple plurality or "first past the post" electoral system. The elections are conducted by the Election Commission of India.
The normal term of the members lasts for five years. In case of death, resignation or disqualification of a member, a by-election is conducted for constituency represented by the member. The party which wins the most seats becomes the ruling party.
In the 2013 elections, the Indian National Congress (INC) won a majority of seats, with 122 out of 224 MLAs. On 10 May 2013, K. Siddaramaiah was chosen as Chief Minister and CLP leader by the MLAs. He was sworn in on 13 May 2013.
List of Assemblies
President's rule in the state
At 11:00am on 18 June 1952, Wednesday, the first session of the legislative assembly was held at the old public office building conference hall (the present high court building) in Bangalore.
On December 16, 1949 the maharaja of Mysore dissolved the representative assembly and the legislative assembly. The constituent assembly which was constituted in 1947 became the provisional assembly of Mysore until the elections were held in 1952.
The first assembly formed under the Constitution had 99 elected and one nominated member. In the first sitting of the assembly, V.Venkatappa was the honorary speaker who administered oath to the members including the then Chief Minister Kengal Hanumanthaiah. He conducted election to the post of speaker, which was contested by socialist leader Shantaveri Gopalagowda, and H.Siddaiah, where H.Siddaiah secured 74 votes and emerged victorious and the first CM of Karnataka state Kengal Hanumanthaiah delivered the speech.
With the formation of Andhra state in 1953, parts of Bellary district from Madras State were added to Mysore state and the strength of the Assembly increased to five members. After the re- organisation of state of Mysore came into being on November 1, 1956 with four districts from the former Bombay state, three districts of Hyderabad state, a district and a taluk of the old Madras state of Coorg and the princely state of Mysore.The state was renamed as Karnataka in 1973.
The first sitting of the new assembly was held on December 19, 1956 in the newly built Vidhana Soudha. The strength of the assembly, which was 208 in 1957 increased to 216 in 1967 and to 224 plus a nominated member in 1978.
The lone women Speaker of Karnataka assembly was K.S. Nagaratnamma from March 24, 1972 to March 3, 1978
Legislature sessions was held twice outside Bangalore in Belgaum --- September 25 to 29, 2006 and from January 16 to 24 in 2009
Current Cabinet (2013-present)
As of 31 October 2015, the government of Karnataka consists of 35 ministers including the Chief Minister.