
Karnataka Legislative Council chairman Basavaraj Horatti says Chief Minister D K Shivakumar called him to request his resignation, and that any decision will wait until he has spoken with BJP and JD(S)…
Karnataka Legislative Council chairman Basavaraj Horatti says Chief Minister D K Shivakumar called him to request his resignation, and that any decision will wait until he has spoken with BJP and JD(S) leaders. He argues that choosing the council chairman and assembly speaker falls to the House itself, not to any party high command, and denies there are grounds to remove him. Congress's leadership has put forward Saleem Ahmed and Umashree for the chairman and deputy chairperson posts, and G S Patil and A S Ponnanna for speaker and deputy speaker. Removing a chairman through a no-confidence vote needs ten members to file fourteen days' notice, in a 75-seat council currently short five members.

A phone call asking for resignation and a party's own nominations put pressure on Horatti, but under the council's own rules a phone call cannot remove a chairman. Horatti's position that the chairmanship is the House's prerogative is a procedural argument that the numbers will test once ten members file the required fourteen days' notice for a no-confidence motion. Horatti's decision after consulting BJP and JD(S) leaders, or a formal motion brought against him instead, is what comes next.
Source: IndiaTimes
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