the goan I network
PANAJI
The Congress on Friday opened a fresh front in its battle against the beleaguered BJP-led coalition government with all its 16 MLAs serving a notice to the Legislature Secretary for the removal of the Speaker Pramod Sawant.
In the notice, signed by all the 16 Congress MLAs, Opposition Leader Babu Kavlekar has quoted rule 243 of the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business of the Goa Legislative Assembly and read with article 179(in lC) of the Constitution.
The move is seen as an attempt by the Congress to build up pressure and force Governor Mridula Sinha’s hand into summoning the Assembly as soon as possible.
Earlier this week, the Opposition party had already petitioned her to call a session and ask the government to seek a trust-vote while simultaneously staking claim to form an alternative government in the backdrop of the treasury benches losing physical numbers due to prolonged
absences of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and cabinet ministers Francis D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar.
Parrikar and his two Cabinet ministers are fighting serious ailments in hospitals outside the State as well as abroad. While the Opposition’s move to unseat Sawant from the Speaker’s position does not compel, by rule, an immediate summoning of the Assembly by the Governor but it does add up another reason for Ms Sinha to do so, a senior Congress leader told The Goan.
The ruling coalition and the BJP which leads it, in particular, is loathe to face a floor test immediately given that three of its members are hospitalized. The schisms and fissures that have surfaced among its allies ever since Parrikar was air-lifted to Delhi and admitted to AIIMS, has only added to the discomfiture of the BJP strategists.
