Goa: SC to decide fate of Kamat govt

Panaji, Aug 13: Goa Assembly Speaker Pratapsinh Rane will hear the disqualification petitions against three legislators of MGP and the Congress even as the Supreme Court will decide on petitions of the MGP against the Speaker tomorrow.

Congress Legislator Agnelo Fernandes filed the disqualification petition against Ramakrishna Davlikar and his brother Pandurang Davlikar for switching support to the nascent anti-Congress coalition of Goa Democratic Alliance (GDA), reducing the 23-member Congress coalition government led by Digambar Kamat to a minority.

The two MLAs of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) challenged the interim order of the Speaker on July 30, restraining them from voting in the House on the ''motion of confidence'' moved by Chief Minister Digambar Kamat.

The Kamat government survived the trial of strength with the Speaker restraining the MGP members and Victoria from voting with strength of both sides reducing to 18.

The Speaker withdrew his ''casting vote'' in the ''tie'' situation with no one pressing for voting on the vote of confidence even as he announced he voted in favour of the treasury benches in the melee.

The 20-member GDA group had also challenged the entire proceedings of the House in the Supreme Court praying for ordering conduct of the re-trial of the strength in the House as the Speaker behaved ''illegally, undemocratically and unconstitutionally.'' The Supreme Court, had on the basis of the petitions of the MGP, directed the Speaker and the Goa government to file their replies by last Friday. It will hear the petitions tomorrow.

On the other hand, Chandrakant Kavlekar (Cong) filed a disqualification petition against lone woman Congress legislator Victoria Fernandes though she had resigned from both the Assembly and the Congress and extended support to the GDA since July 26.

The charge against her was that she violated the whip of the legislature party to participate in voting in the House on budget demands on July 24.

She challenged the decision of the Speaker restraining her from participating in the house proceedings and voting in the Bombay High Court, saying the Speaker acted partisan by failing to receive her resignation in person.

She had resigned from the House and the Congress stating she had been humiliated and denied Cabinet berth inspite of her seniority and being the lone woman of the House.

Ideologically diametrically opposite parties-BJP(14), SGF(2), MGP(2), UGDP(1) and Independent(1) came together on July 26 to form the anti-Congress coalition of the GDA, reducing the Kamat-led government to a minority.

The NDA-backed GDA, had even paraded the members at Rashtrapathi Bhavan for headcount and staged demonstrations at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi blaming both Governor S C Jamir and the Speaker for acting partisan at the instance of the party high command to ''butcher democracy'' in Goa.

They described July 30 as the ''black day'' in the history of the state with the majority opposition denied of opportunity to form government by dismissing the minority government.

UNI