Horatti chairs Council proceedings non-stop for over 11 hours

Chairman of the Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti has created a record of sorts by chairing the session for over 11 hours on the concluding day of the Winter Session in Belagavi on Friday.

The House session on the last day began at 10.15 a.m. and continued without lunch break till 10.15 p.m. The only short break it had was for five minutes because of an adjournment, forced by ruckus caused by the Opposition and ruling party members over the Bill on hate speech.

45 years in Council

Mr. Horatti, 79, who has created a record for being a member of Legislative Council continuously for over 45 years, sat through the entire proceedings.

Mr. Horatti who had said that he would announce lunch break after the Bill was put to vote, could not do so because the discussion on The Karnataka Hate Speech and Hate Crimes (Prevention) Bill, 2025, stretched for over six hours. This was the longest debate on any Bill during the Winter Session in which 23 members participated.

Mr. Horatti took a 10-minute break in between, but came back to be in the Chair. The continued debate without any break resulted in several Council members taking short breaks for snacks and beverages, while some slipped and returned after lunch.

Longest for CM too

The last day of the session in the Council also witnessed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah attending for almost around seven hours. Although Mr. Siddaramaiah wanted to leave and come back for the reply, Mr. Horatti insisted on him staying back till he completed his reply to the discussion on North Karnataka issues.

The Chief Minister sat through the discussions over various Bills before he was asked by the Chairman to make his reply and subsequent clarification which stretched for close to three hours.