Mankal Vaidya unanimously elected Karnataka Assembly deputy speaker

A man named Mankal Vaidya works for the government of Karnataka, a big state in India.

He belongs to a big political party called Congress and used to be a minister.

On Monday, he signed up for a new job called deputy speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

The deputy speaker helps run meetings of the assembly, where leaders make decisions and laws.

He gave his papers to the Assembly Secretary while the Chief Minister, D K Shivakumar, watched.

The job was empty because the old deputy speaker, Rudrappa Lamani, had to quit when he got a new job as a minister.

At first, the Congress party wanted A S Ponnanna for the job, but Ponnanna got a different job helping the Chief Minister.

Earlier, Vaidya was also supposed to become a minister, but the party picked someone else instead.

On Tuesday, the Speaker, G S Patil, asked everyone in the assembly if they agreed with Vaidya, and nobody objected.

The other big party, the BJP, did not put forward anyone, so Vaidya was chosen without any competition.