Karnataka Council Chairman resigns, says Congress High Command asked him to quit

Published 7 August 2026 · politics

Karnataka Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti on Friday resigned from his position, saying he was asked by the state's ruling Congress to step down. "I

Karnataka Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti on Friday resigned from his position, saying he was asked by the state's ruling Congress to step down. "I don't know why they (Congress government) asked me to resign," he said, as he publicly acknowledged that his resignation had already been accepted. This came a day after Horatti said he would resign from the post, following the DK Shivakumar-led government's purported decision to move a no-confidence motion against him if he refused to quit. Read Full Story Horatti met the Chief Minister late on Wednesday to discuss the move to replace him. "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 on Thursday. During the days leading to the resignation, Horatti had said that the Congress enjoys a majority in the upper house of the state legislature and could easily unseat him through a no-confidence motion, He had further said that the decision to resign was meant to preserve the dignity he had earned over the years. "I don't want to continue when there is a view that I should no longer occupy the Chair. I will resign," Horatti was quoted as saying by news agency PTI. He had added that CM Shivakumar and other 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.

SALEEM AHMED TO REPLACE HORATTI? Horatti's remarks came after the Congress high command, in a letter to Shivakumar on Monday, 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 also approved the names of GS Patil for the post of Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and AS Ponnanna for Deputy Speaker. While Horatti eventually resigned, he had already voiced his stern objection to the Congress' move, calling it "unprecedented." He had maintained that electing the Legislative Council Chairman and the Assembly Speaker was the prerogative of the House, not that of a political party's high command. "It is an anti-democratic move.

I'm saddened," he said on Thursday. Pointing out that no Council Chairman had been forced to resign since 1956 and that all of them had completed their full terms, Horatti said there were no grounds to remove him. "There are no allegations against me. I have always been impartial and honest. Everyone acknowledges that," he had stated. An eight-time MLC, the 80-year-old was elected unopposed as Chairman of the Legislative Council in December 2022 when the BJP was in power. Ends (With inputs from PTI)