Karnataka governor Vajubhai Vala on Friday evening named three-time BJP MLA KG Bopaiah as the pro-tem Speaker to conduct the floor test tomorrow in the state Assembly, as directed by the Supreme Court.

According to convention, the senior-most MLA is appointed as pro-tem Speaker, which makes Congress’ RV Deshpande eligible since he has won elections eight of the nine times he contested.

The Congress and JDS have threatened to move court over the appointment. A report in The NewsMinute quoted Deshpande as saying earlier in the day: “I assume I am the senior most in the Assembly and will be appointed the pro-tem Speaker. There is no question of a secret ballot anyway. It will either be a voice vote or a division of votes.”

Bopaiah, who served as Speaker from November 2009 to 2013 and is known to have a long-term association with the RSS, had disqualified all MLAs who had gone against BJP’s Yeddyurappa in 2011. While the decision was upheld by the Karnataka High Court, it was overturned by the Supreme Court, which censured him for ‘hastily’ disqualifying 16 MLAs to enable Yeddyurappa to win the trust vote.