He served as the Speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly three times. He was also the Minister of Animal Husbandry in the Devaraj Urs Cabinet. From 1985 to 1989, he has been the Speaker of Assembly for consecutive four years.

Banakar died at the age of 91 years, after suffering from brief illness. He was an LLB Graduate and was an advocate for some time. Later, he joined politics through Gram Panchayat afterward became an MLA, Minister, and the Assembly Speaker as well. He was very down to earth leader and love farming. He used to spend his time in fields too and used to travel by Public Transport too. He was like a ‘Guru’ figure for many political leaders and more than 100 of people turned-up in his funeral process at Hirekerur in Haveri district.

Karnataka Legislative Assembly is the lower house, which comprises of two houses of Karnataka State of Southern India. In the Legislative Assembly of Karnataka, there are 224 members. As well as, the Karnataka State is divided into 224 constituencies. So, each constituency elects the single Legislative Assembly Member. The first Speaker of Legislative Assembly of Karnataka was V. Venkatappa, from January 26, 1952, to June 17, 1952, from the Indian National Congress Party. Whereas, the current Speaker of the Legislative Assembly is K.R. Ramesh Kumar, from May 25, 2018, from Indian National Congress Party. In the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, the one and only Women Speaker was K.S. Nagaratnamma from March 24, 1972, to March 3, 1978.