Member of Legislature Assembly from Virajpet and Senior Advocate AS Ponnanna has been appointed legal advisor to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Siddaramaiah also ordered that Ponnanna will be conferred cabinet rank status and accompanying benefits.

Ponnanna contested on the Indian National Congress (INC) ticket and secured a victory by a margin of 4,291 votes over three-time Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) and incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader KG Bopaiah, who also served as the former speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly.

Ponnanna is a graduate of Bangalore University Law College’s 1997 batch and served as an Additional Advocate General of Karnataka from July 10, 2014 to April 29, 2019. He was designated Senior Advocate in 2018.

He is the son of former Leader of the Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council and four-time Member of Legislative Council (MLC) AK Subbaiah.