the goan I network
PANAJI
In a move that is bound to ruffle feathers in the coalition government, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party has filed a petition in the High Court seeking disqualification of former Congress MLAs Subash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte from contesting any election for six years. Shirodkar and Sopte had quit as members of the State Assembly recently and had joined the BJP.
The petition, which was filed before the Panaji Bench of the Bombay High Court by MGP leaders Satyawan Palkar and Vikas Prabhu also demanded that Speaker Pramod Sawant’s order accepting the resignations of two former MLAs should be declared invalid.
The petition filed on Monday, was made known to the media on Tuesday at a press conference by MGP working president Narayan Sawant and vice-president Ratnakar Mardolkar.
“The primary aim of this petition is to put an end to MLAs switching sides without reason which creates unnecessary instability in the government”, said Narayan Sawant.
In Goa’s post-Liberation political history, MGP was the biggest loser with MLAs changing sides. After the party was formed in 1963 and till date, out of total 123 MLAs, around 35 had switched sides, he added.
In the petition, Election Commission of India, Chief Electoral Officer, Goa, Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, Secretary Legislature and former Congress MLAs Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte have been named as respondents.
The petition also states that BJP had triggered defections of the two former Congress MLAs keeping in mind the illness of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar and former power minister Pandurang Madkaikar, in the event of an Assembly session being convened and a subsequent floor test.
“After the government formation, Parrikar has remained terminally ill and was hospitalised, either abroad, or in New Delhi as well as in Goa Medical College. Two other (former) ministers namely, Francisco D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar, have also remained ill and hospitalised for almost a year,” says the petition.
“Another MLA Jose Luis Carlos Almeida, representing Vasco-da-Gama constituency from BJP, also continues to be ill. With the sickness of the aforesaid elected representatives, the political situation in Goa continues to be fluid,” the petition stated.
The ruling BJP either wants to increase its tally of seats in the Assembly or go in for fresh elections, the petition said.
The BJP and the Congress currently have 14 MLAs each in the 38-member Assembly, while the MGP and Goa Forward (both ruling allies) have three MLAs each.
The State Assembly also has three independent MLAs and one MLA from the Nationalist Congress Party, all of whom support the treasury benches.
Asked whether the petition has been filed by MGP for political gains Mardolkar said, “we want to put an end to MLAs switching sides which puts unnecessary burden on the public exchequer in the event of a re-election”.
