PANAJI
Goa Speaker Rajesh Patnekar is expected to pass orders in the two distinct disqualification petitions filed against 12 MLAs who defected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in mid-2019, including the two Deputy Chief Ministers, Manohar (Babu) Ajgaonkar and Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar, and the three cabinet ministers -- Deepak Pauskar, Filipe Neri Rodrigues and Jennifer Monserrate.
On Monday, Patnekar held hearings in the petition filed against Ajgaonkar and Pauskar by MGP’s lone MLA, Sudin Dhavalikar and the separate plea of State Congress President Girish Chodankar against the 10 ex-Congress legislators led by Kavlekar who split and merged with the BJP.
According to Chodankar’s counsel, Abhijit Gosavi, the Speaker has assured the final orders will be pronounced on April 29.
Gosavi also said that during Monday’s hearing, Patnekar dismissed an application filed by the defendant MLAs seeking cross-examination of Chodankar.
Chodankar had filed the disqualification petition before the Speaker in 2019 on grounds that the split and merger of the 10 Congress MLAs into the BJP was illegal and violative of the Xth Schedule of the Constitution.
Chodankar had also approached the Supreme Court of India asking it to direct the Goa Speaker to expedite the hearings in his disqualification petition. His plea in the apex court is expected to come up for hearing on Tuesday.
Dhavalikar, meanwhile, said, he was looking forward to the Speaker’s final order related to his disqualification petition against Ajgaonkar and Pauskar on April 29.
Dhavalikar, who was then the Deputy Chief Minister in the Sawant-led cabinet was sacked in 2019 as soon as Ajgaonkar and Pauskar, who were elected in 2017 on an MGP ticket split from it and joined the BJP in 2019.
