PANAJIThe Congress on Wednesday strongly objected to the government's move to hold elections to the post of Speaker before the results to the byelection are declared and demanded that Governor Mridula Sinha rejects the proposal.Opposition Leader Chandrakant Kavlekar said the Governor should not permit an assembly session before the bypoll results."We suspect that the government is fearing that the bypoll results will not be in favour of the ruling coalition and that is why they want to elect a Speaker who is favourable to them," Kavlekar said.The Opposition leader also raised questions over the reluctance of the government to hold sessions of the Assembly despite repeated requests from them (Congress) to discuss crucial issues like mining and collapse of the administration when the late chief minister Manohar Parrikar was seriously ill.He said, deputy speaker Michael Lobo who currently holds the office of Speaker, is known for his straightforward attitude and now the government has no faith in him and wants to elect a different Speaker.GPCC president Girish Chodankar said that Micheal Lobo is acting speaker now and when there is also provision to appoint protem speaker, then what is the hurry to appoint a new Speaker.The Speaker should be elected by the full house, Chodankar stated, adding that if the Governor acts biased and approves the assembly session on May 20, then the Congress will be forced to agitate and demand recall of the Governor.We will petition to the President to recall the Governor if she acts biased, said Chodankar."What is the hurry to hold a session when after two days a full house session can be held," Kavlekar asked.He also demanded that the Governor should act as custodian of the constitution and thus not allow a session on May 20.
