Goa Assembly to witness tempestuous session

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

Panaji, July 30: The Goa Legislative Assembly is poised to witness a tempestuous session this afternoon when the 53-day-old Congress-led coalition government, headed by Digambar Kamat, faces the crucial trial of strength on the floor of the House amid tight security.

Police have beefed up security measures both within and outside the House as a precautionary measure to prevent unruly elements barging in to create disturbance when the House meets at 1430 hrs.

Entry of visitors has also been restricted to the House.

Governor S C Jamir directed Chief Minister Digambar Kamat to prove his strength on the floor of the House following the opposition charge that the government has been reduced to minority.

While the nascent anti-Congress coalition of the BJP-led Goa Democratic Alliance (GDA) claims it has a strength of 20 members in the 39-member House, the Congress maintains it is ''firm on its saddle'' with enough strength to prove its majority.

Battlelines have been drawn between the two dispensations in the Assembly, which also has the responsibility of adopting the financial bill before Tuesday to avoid a constitutional crisis as the four-month vote-on-account budget for the current fiscal ends this month-end.

The role of Speaker Pratapsinh Rane, with over 25 years of experience in the state politics, becomes crucial as an ''impartial'' presiding officer of the House, besides ensuring the members maintain its dignity and decorum.

Yet his action of adjourning the House on last Thursday to Monday following pandemonium by the treasury benches, including the Chief Minister, came in for criticism by the GDA, even as his office served notices on two members of the MGP on a disq1ualification petition filed by Agnelo Fernandes (Congress).

This is amid apprehension that the Speaker may restrain the two MGP members from voting in the House for switching sides, even as he is yet to dispose of another disqualification petition against the lone Congress rebel Victoria Fernandes, who resigned on July 25 by raising a banner of revolt against the Kamat government.

Instability has become a hallmark of Goan politics since it attained statehood in 1987. The picturesque state witnessed 16 chief ministers so far. Political instability continued to dog the state with a mature and highly educated electorate giving a fractured mandate and smaller regional parties playing the ''trump card'' all through.

Turncoat politics had resulted in the imposition of the President's Rule five times since the state's liberation from the Portuguese in 1961. It was imposed three times after Goa attained statehood on May 30, 1987.

The Digambar Kamat-led government which took reins of the state on June 8, after the June 2 elections to the 40-member House, was reduced to a ''minority'' following resignation of the lone woman Congress legislator Victoria Fernandes on July 26 and withdrawal of support by two-members of MGP and an Independent from the 23-member coalition government.

Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar, an elected leader of the GDA, averred that the combined strength of the government has been reduced to 18 -- Congress 14, NCP 3 and Independent 1, with Speaker having power to vote only in case of a tie.

On the other hand, the GDA, which the Chief Minister described as an ''unholy alliance backed by land mafias'', has a strength of 20, with BJP 14, Save Goa Front (SGF) and MGP 2 each, UGDP 1 and Independent 1, apart from Ms Fernandes.

After the GDA succeeded in showing its strength through a head count before President Pratibha Patil on the lawns of Rashtrapati Bhavan on Saturday, Governor S C Jamir directed the Chief Minister to face the trial of strength on the floor of the House today.

Cutting across their pre-poll inherent contradictions and animosities, the GDA partners forged the alliance to oust the Kamat government, which they described as ''incompetent, inefficient and maladministered, even as the Chief Minister has turned a puppet.'' On the other hand, the Congress, which had stalled the controversial Regional Plan-2011 from being put through, alleged that the land mafia was behind the GDA to reap rich harvest once the alliance come to power.

The ongoing crisis wre more of an economic nature than political one, the Congress maintained, saying that the BJP was unable to digest the popularity of the Kamat government in a short span of time.

While the NCP watches the unfolding developments calmly, the Congress has been using all tricks to engineer a split in the GDA at any cost for its survival, claims the MGP.

MGP supremo Pandurang Raut condemned the ''undemocratic and illegal manner'' in which the Speaker's office had issued a notice to the MGP general secretary for endorsing and later withdrawing its support to the Congress-led coalition government.

''We do not budge despite threats, but continue to support the GDA. We had written to the Governor and the Speaker in this regard,'' Mr Raut said.

''It is an internal affair of our party and the Speaker had no role in interfering with them by falling a prey to the machinations of the Congress,'' the GDA leader said.

Mrs Fernandes, who was also present at Rashtrapati Bhavan during the show of strength by the GDA members, continued to fret and fume against the Speaker and Chief Minister for the ''ill-treatment'' meted out to her all along and denial of a Cabinet berth to her despite being the lone woman member in the House.

The Congress camp still feels she continues to be the member of the House as long as the Speaker does not accept her resignation.


UNI

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