Horatti of JD(S) unanimously elected as chairman of K’taka Legislative Council

Bengaluru, Feb 9 : Seven-time Janata Dal (S) MLC, Basavaraj Horatti, who had entered the fray as the ruling BJP supported candidate for the post of the Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council, was declared ‘elected unanimously’ on Tuesday.
Horatti was declared ‘unanimously’ elected as the opposition Congress did not propose the name of its candidate Naseer Ahmed during the election process.
Horatti (74), who started as a physical education teacher in the Lamington High School in Hubballi, did is Bachelor of Arts degree and before doing Masters in physical education. He has been a member of the Council for more than 40 years now, starting from 1980. He had served as the Chairman (acting) of the Council from June 22 to December 12, 2018.
Both Horatti and Naseer Ahmed had filed their nominations on Monday. The election was necessitated following the resignation of Congress’ K. Prathap Chandra Shetty as the Chairman on February 4 to preempt a no-confidence motion against him by the ruling BJP with JD(S) extending support to it.
Horratti’s election was certain as the BJP and the JD(S) had joined hands for the posts of the Chairman and Deputy Chairman. As per the arrangement, BJP MLC M.K. Pranesh was on January 29 elected as the Deputy Chairman with the backing of JD(S), and now the ruling party returned the favour by supporting the regional party nominee, Horatti.
With a combined strength of 44 (BJP: 31, JD-S: 13) in a house of 75 members, Horatti’s victory was a foregone conclusion. But the Congress had fielded Ahmed on Monday only to ‘expose’ the JD(S). The Congress had tasted defeat on January 29, when Pranesh was elected after defeating senior Congress leader K.C. Kondaiah. At that time too, the Congress had said that it fielded its candidate only to ‘expose’ the JD(S).