PANAJI: Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar who until 11 pm of Monday night were hanging out with their party colleagues after taking part in a Congress legislature party meeting were on Tuesday members of the BJP.
The two legislators who made a late night dash to New Delhi tendered their resignations to the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly via fax after a meeting with Amit Shah in a move that was engineered by Minister of Health Vishwajit Rane.
The resignations were tendered at 12:30 pm and faxed to the Speaker’s office by 12:55 pm on Tuesday and almost immediately accepted.
The legislators did not cite any reason for quitting in their resignation letter.
“We have received the resignation of the two Congress MLAs Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar one from Mandrem constituency and one from Shiroda constituency. I have received a fax. After receiving I have telephonically confirmed with them in front of the Secretary and they have told me that they are willingly giving their resignations without any pressure,” Speaker Pramod Sawant said.
“After telephonic confirmation, I have accepted the resignation of both the MLAs and asked the secretary to complete the process. He will complete the process and send copies to all the members of the house to the government, the governor and also to the election commission,” Sawant added.
Later in the day Sopte and Shirodkar were welcomed into the BJP at a function at 6 pm at the New Delhi Office by Union Minister of Railways Piyush Goyal and in the presence of State BJP president Vinay Tendulkar, Union Minister of State for AYUSH Shripad Naik and Vishwajit Rane.
Sopte and Shirodkar flew to Delhi on a late night flight along with Vishwajit Rane, Shripad Naik and Vishwajit Rane with speculation rife that they were joining the BJP.
While Sopte had termed his visit to Delhi as a business trip while Shirodkar said he was flying to the capital to attend a reception.
Sopte, had however informed a section of his supporters in his constituency of his decision to join the BJP.
The decision to admit Sopte into the party has however rankled the established party leadership with some members openly airing their displeasure.
The move by its MLAs comes as a shock to the Congress Legislative Party, who, till Monday evening, thought that they had their numbers intact. Leader of the Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar while speaking to 'The Goan' on Monday had said all their 16 MLAs are united and rumours of MLAs leaving the party to join the BJP were baseless.
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Assembly official
suspended for
leaking letters
of resignation
PANAJI: The Goa assembly speaker on Tuesday suspended assembly staff for allegedly leaking official documents of Goa legislative assembly. Sources from the assembly say that suspended official leaked Resignation letters of the two MLAs on WhatsApp which was faxed from Delhi.
Two Congress MLAs Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte before making a public announcement of joining BJP in Delhi faxed their resignation letters to Speaker Pramod Sawant in his office.
The speaker accepted the letters and this letters with speaker’s remark got leaked on the WhatsApp. As this letters went viral internal inquiry revealed that Rishab Subhedar who is working as a watch and ward (staff) of the Goa Assembly leaked this document.
“The speaker suspended one Rishab Subhedar who is working as watch and ward (staff) of the Goa Assembly for leaking the official documents from the Legislature Secretariat on Whatsapp,” says the statement issued by the office of the Speaker.
“This is the first of its kind incident wherein exemplary punishment has been ordered to maintain sanctity and discipline of the Assembly,” the statement added.
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HOW THEY STAND
HOUSE STRENGTH: 38
(After Shirodkar and Sopte quit)
RULING COALITION
>> BJP: 14
>> GOA FORWARD: 03
>> INDEPENDENTS: 03
>> MGP: 03
TOTAL: 23
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OPPOSITION FRONT
>> CONGRESS: 14
>> NCP: 01
TOTAL: 15
