Karnataka legislature's 10-day budget session begins on stormy note

The 10-day budget session of the Karnataka legislature began on a stormy note on Wednesday with BJP legislators disrupting Governor Vajubhai Vala's address to its joint sitting. As soon as Vala began his address in Hindi, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members walked towards the Chair and started raising slogans against the state's JD-S-Congress coalition government, drowning his voice.

With the opposition members refusing to hear him out in the pandemonium, the Governor abruptly stopped his speech after reading only two pages and left the Assembly. Soon after, Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar tabled the Governor's speech as 'read' and copies of Vala's joint address were circulated in Kannada and English to the members of the Assembly and Council.

The Speaker made obituary references to the state's iconic seer Shivakumara Swami, who passed away on January 21, and Mangaluru-born former Defence Minister George Fernandes, who died on January 29. Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, BJP leader in the Lower House B.S. Yeddyurappa and Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara also paid tributes to the seer and Fernandes. Kumaraswamy, who also holds the Finance portfolio, will present the state Budget for fiscal 2019-20 in the Assembly on Friday.

(With inputs from agencies.)