Election to the post of Deputy Chairman of Legislative Council, which has fallen vacant, has been necessitated with the filing of nomination by BJP and Congress candidates. The election will be held on Friday.
While BJP legislator M.K. Pranesh filed his nomination papers on Thursday, Congress asked it’s senior member K.C. Kondaiah also to file his nomination for the post.
However, it is unlikely that Mr. Kondaiah will prevail over his BJP rival as the Congress does not have the numbers on its own. The support of Janata Dal (Secular) is crucial in the election since no party has a clear majority in the 75-member House.
JD(S) and BJP have already come to an understanding over sharing of the post of Deputy Chairman and Chairman. The two parties have given notice to move a no-confidence motion against Chairman K. Prathapchandra Shetty.
Senior-most member in the Council and JD(S) leader Basavaraj Horatti, who is set to become the joint candidate of JD(S) and BJP for the Chairman’s post on Thursday, thanked party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda for having provided the opportunity to him to become the Chairman. He also met Mr. Gowda in the morning. Mr. Horatti thanked Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and BJP legislators for agreeing to the arrangement.
Mr. Horatti said that the notice of no-confidence motion has been given and according to the rules, the notice has to be issued 14 days before. “The 14-day window will end on February 2 and the motion has to be included in the agenda after that,” he said.
