CANACONA
Four-term MLA and former minister Ramesh Tawadkar will be the first leader from the ST community in the State and the first legislator in Canacona to be elected as speaker in the assembly.
According to Gaondongrim ex-Sarpanch and UTAA leader Vishant Gaonkar, the previous legislator from the ST community Prakash Velip had served as deputy speaker, but no ST leader had risen to occupy the speaker’s post.
“Tawadkar will be the first MLA from ST community to become the Speaker and we are thrilled that a leader from the ST community has been given this honour,” said Gaonkar.
Tawadkar will also become the first MLA in Canacona to serve as speaker.
According to sources, the post of deputy speaker had been held by two MLAs from Canacona. Monju Balkrishna Naikgaunkar, who was the second MLA from Canacona elected on the MG ticket in 1967, was the first, while Isidore Fernandes, who was elected on the Congress ticket in 2017 and later joined the BJP, was the second deputy speaker from Canacona.
Tawadkar has won all four times on the BJP ticket. He became an MLA after winning the bye-election in 2005 and then in 2007 (general elections) in the erstwhile Poinguinim constituency. He went on to win in the delimited Canacona constituency in 2012, before winning his fourth term in the 2022 assembly elections.
