PANAJI
Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai on Monday administered the oath to the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) Sanvordem MLA, Ganesh Gaonkar and also as pro-tem speaker of the Goa legislative assembly.
Gaonkar, who has been elected to the House for the second time after his 2012-17 term, will officiate as Speaker and administer the oath to the 39 newly elected MLAs and also preside over the proceedings to elect a regular Speaker of the Goa legislative assembly.
The new Assembly has been summoned to meet at 11.30 am on Tuesday during which the MLAs-elect will be administered the oath by Gaonkar.
The position of the Pro-tem Speaker is largely ceremonial although it is endowed with all the powers of the Speaker for the time he/she sits in office and is by convention picked from among senior MLAs, irrespective of which side the affiliation is.
In Goa, however, the ruling parties have been cautious over the choice of protem Speakers ever since the controversial role of then pro-tem Speaker, the late Somnath Zuwarkar, which helped the then ruling Congress nullify an apparent defeat in the Speaker's election in 1994.
