MAPUSA
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Joshua D’Souza was elected the Deputy Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly on Friday thereby becoming the youngest legislator to hold the post in the State.
D’Souza, who polled 24 votes, defeated Opposition Congress candidate Delilah Lobo, who got 12 votes in the election held on the last day of the 10-day Monsoon session of the Legislative Assembly.
For the ruling BJP, the election went on expected lines with 19 party MLAs along with the two of MGP and three Independents backing D’Souza’s candidature while Lobo secured the support of 11 Congress MLAs besides the lone Goa Forward Party legislator.
Two MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party and the lone Revolutionary Goan Party legislator abstained from voting, exposing the fissures among the Opposition.
Interestingly, during the election of the Speaker, the entire opposition including the two AAP and one RGP MLAs voted for the opposition-backed candidate Aleixo Sequeira.
AAP Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas said the Congress failed to take them into confidence while deciding on the candidate for the Deputy Speaker’s post unlike the election of the Speaker.
“During the election of the Speaker, all of us held a meeting to decide who will be the Opposition candidate but in this election, we were not consulted. Therefore we decided to abstain,” Viegas said.
The Congress, which escaped a defection move by a whisker at the start of the assembly session, however, said the voting pattern of the deputy speaker’s election helped to solve the mystery of the three who cross-voted during the presidential elections
“Cross voting during presidential elections reflected today during election of Deputy Speaker. A & B team of @BJP4India stands exposed. After all, it's AAPkaBJPparivar. Mystery of 3 votes stands solved,” Goa Congress president, Amit Patkar said in a tweet.
D’Souza (33) is the youngest MLA to get elected as the deputy speaker in the State, an official in the Speaker’s office informed.
