Karnataka Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti tendered his resignation on Friday at the request of the Congress party.
Speaking to reporters, the leader said he does not know why Congress asked him to tender his resignation.
“The ruling party wants me to resign. The Chief Minister spoke to me twice over the phone. Yesterday, he called me for a personal meeting and told me that the party high command had directed him to ask me to quit. He said that if I didn’t resign, they would move a no-confidence motion against me,” Horatti told reporters.
The leader added that he said he wanted to resign “respectfully” and had decided to do so on August 14.
Horatti added that he was “deeply pained” by the developments and wanted to resign after raising the matter with the House.
“I don’t want to continue when there is a view that I should no longer occupy the Chair. I will resign,” he was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The legislative council chairman added that the chief minister, DK Shivakumar, and ministers had told him the decision to replace him was that of the party high command and that they personally held him in high regard.
As per PTI, this development comes after the Congress high command, in a letter to Shivakumar, approved Saleem Ahmed as the party’s nominee for the post of Legislative Council Chairman and Umashree for Deputy Chairperson, along with the list of ministers sworn in on Monday.
The party has approved the names of G S Patil for the post of Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and A S Ponnanna for Deputy Speaker.
Despite this, Horatti reiterated his objection to the move, calling it “unprecedented”.
He said electing the Legislative Council Chairman and the Assembly Speaker was the prerogative of the House, and not of the party’s high command.
“It is an anti-democratic move. I’m saddened,” he said.
