Bengaluru, Feb 8 : The ruling BJP and Janata Dal (Secular) combined forces to field senior JD (S) member Basavaraj Horatti while Congress party member Naseer Ahmed filed his nomination for the post of Chairman of Karnataka Legislative Council on Monday.
Elections will be held on Tuesday. Seven-time MLC Horatti has emerged as the candidate of a coalition of ruling BJP and JD(S).
He was accompanied by both JD(S) and BJP members including leader of the House in the Council Kota Sreenivasa Poojary while filing his nomination on Monday.
After the two parties came together to depose past Chairman K. Pratapchandra Shetty, BJP got the Deputy Chairman’s post – M. K. Pranesh was elected on January 29 – and JD(S) the Chairman’s post as part of the deal.
With the combined strength of BJP (31) and JDS (13) – 44 crossing the majority mark in a house of 75 members, Horatti’s victory forgone conclusion with both parties officially forming an alliance.
The Congress, with a strength of 29 members, has fielded Naseer Ahmed as its candidate, to force voting on the floor of the House and ‘expose JD(S)’ alliance with communal BJP.
On January 29, BJP MLC M. K. Pranesh was elected as the Deputy Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council with the backing of JD(S). Then too, Congress party had fielded its senior leader K. C. Kondaiah as its candidate to ‘expose JD(S)’.
In the election held for the post through a process of headcount, the proposal to elect Pranesh, backed by BJP and JD(S) MLCs, secured 41 votes with 24 Congress members voting against it.
Then Chairman K. Pratap Chandra Shetty declared Pranesh elected after the headcount.
After this, Shetty, the council chairman who is a Congress member resigned from his post on February 4.
During the winter legislature session in December last year, the BJP had moved a no-confidence motion against Shetty after gaining the upper hand (31 seats) in the Council.
However, the process turned out be a messy affair with the council witnessing uproarious events on December 15. When the joint session started in the last week of January, the BJP, which found that the chairman was himself resigning, had not pressed for a discussion on the no-confidence motion. On February 4 evening, Shetty announced his resignation in the House.
Disclaimer: This story is auto-generated from IANS service.