PANAJI
A two-day session of the new Goa legislative Assembly will commence on Tuesday at 11.30 am which will be addressed by the Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai.
It is customary and a legislative convention in India that the Governor addresses the State legislature in the first session of every calendar year.
On Tuesday, the governor's address, however, will be preceded by the procedure of election of the new Speaker which is expected to be a symbolic contest between the ruling BJP-sponsored candidate Ramesh Tawadkar and the joint nominee of the Opposition Aleixo Sequeira of the Congress.
The Speaker's election will be held by a voice-vote.
Strangely, there is no proposal listed in the agenda for day one of the two-day session, for the Sawant-led government to seek a vote of confidence.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has won 20 seats in the just concluded assembly elections, one short of a simple majority. It has however claimed support of five more MLAs -- two of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independents -- on the basis of letters of support and also parading MLAs before the Governor.
In this session, the government also proposes to restrict proceedings in the duration of this two-day session to government sponsored business only.
Meanwhile, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is slated to move a motion seeking suspension of the rules of procedure and conduct of business of the Goa legislative assembly to ensure only government business is transacted and no other business including questions, calling attention motions or any other business initiated by private member is taken up.
The House is also slated to take up obituary references including of two former members of the legislative assembly -- Luis Alex Cardozo and Teotonio Pereira.
