Cong to field Naseer Ahmed for Legislative Council Chairman post

Not willing to let go without acontest, the Congress in Karnataka on Sunday said it hasdecided to field its MLC Naseer Ahmed as party's candidate forthe Legislative Council Chairman's election scheduled to beheld on February 9.

''Congress has decided to field Naseer Ahmed as itscandidate for the Legislative Council Chairman election, he isour candidate. Let's see which party will take what stand,''state Congress President D K Shivakumar told reporters here.

According to official notification, February 8 is thedate for filing of nominations for the election to the post ofLegislative Council Chairman, while election will take placeon the next day.

The election is necessitatedfollowing the resignation ofCongress'K Prathapachandra Shetty as the Chairman onFebruary4 to preempt a no-confidence motion against him bythe ruling BJP, and JD(S) extending support to it.

BJP has announced its support to senior JD(S) MLCBasavaraj Horatti for the post of Chairman, in accordance withthe pact between both parties.

As per the arrangement BJP MLC M K Pranesh was on January29 elected as theDeputyChairmanof the Council, with thebacking of JD(S).

According to BJP sources, the party agreed to supportHoratti asChairmaninstead of seeking the post for itselfinreturn for JD(S)' support in its move to oust Shetty andpassage of certain key bills.

The earlier move by both parties in December to removeShetty asChairmanwas not successful as their notice of no-confidence was rejected on technical grounds.

The House had witnessed high drama that day with theBJP-JDS and Congress members hurling abuses and pushing eachother.

Amid the ruckus on December 15, the thenDeputyChairmanDharme Gowda, who is now no more, was even pulled down fromthe Chair.

With numbers clearly on his side, though the election ofHorrati as Chairman is certain, opposition Congress wants toensure that there is a contest instead of the election beingunopposed.

Currently the ruling BJP is the single largest party inthe Council with 31 seats, followed by Congress with 29, JD(S)13, one independent and one vacant (due to death of DharmeGowda).