Assembly, Council presiding officers to be elected on August 14; BJP to boycott Speaker’s election
Congress MLA Ron G.S. Patil filed his nomination for the post of Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Thursday in the presence of Chief
Congress MLA Ron G.S. Patil filed his nomination for the post of Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on Thursday in the presence of Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar. Patil submitted his nomination papers at the office of Assembly Secretary M.K. Vishalakshi in Vidhana Soudha. Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, Minister K.H. Muniyappa, KPCC president and MLC B.K. Hariprasad and former Minister H.K. Patil were present. The Bharatiya Janata Party has decided to boycott the election on the grounds that the Congress high command had “insulted” the Constitutional post as well as the legislature by directly installing its candidate as Speaker through its letterhead.
Meanwhile, Congress MLC Saleem Ahmed filed his nomination for the post of Chairman of the Karnataka Legislative Council. Ahmed submitted his nomination papers at the office of the Legislative Council Secretary in the presence of Mr. Shivakumar, Minister Yathindra Siddaramaiah, MLCs Hariprasad, Vinay Karthik, and Nagaraj Yadav. The elections to both posts are scheduled to be held on Friday. Meanwhile, BJP MLCs held discussions on the developments and the election to the post of Council Chairman. Legislative Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti had earlier said that he was compelled to sign his resignation letter, alleging that he was not given an opportunity to resign on the day he had planned to do so.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashok said the Friday’s election had lost its meaning as the Congress high command in its letter had already announced the name of the Speaker. Attacking Congress top leaders, Mr. Ashok said the Congress had created a new precedence of announcing the name of presiding officers through their letterhead instead of letting the Legislature House elect him. They had insulted the Legislative Council too by announcing the name of Legislative Council chairman in their letterhead and also “forcing” Mr. Horatti to quit, he claimed..
Ashok said the BJP’s protest was only against the alleged anti-democratic stand of the Congress high command and that the party would not disrespect the Speaker’s Chair.
The BriefWire