By IANS
New Delhi : The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Saturday paraded 20 MLAs before President Pratiba Patil to prove that it had majority in the Goa assembly even as state Governor S.C. Jamir directed Chief Minister Digambar Kamat to go for a vote of confidence on Monday.
BJP president Rajnath Singh took the MLAs, who have been brought from Panaji, to Rashtrapati Bhavan and sought the president's intervention to direct the state governor to allow BJP assembly leader Manohar Parrikar to form the government immediately.
"There should be a direction that the first agenda on the day should be a trial of strength, which must be done in the presence of the observer and proceedings be video graphed," Singh told reporters after the meeting with the president.
The BJP-led-Goa Democratic Alliance (GDA) has claimed it has the numbers to form a government in the state after the Kamat-led Congress government was reduced to a minority.
Apart from 14 BJP MLAs, two Maharashtra Gomantak Party (MGP) legislators, two Save Goa Front MLAs, one United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) MLA, and an independent – Anil Salgaoncar – also accompanied Singh to the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
In a memorandum submitted to the president, the BJP MLAs asked the president to ensure that the Goa assembly would hold its sitting on Monday as scheduled.
The 49-day-old Congress government in Goa has been on the brink of collapse since the two-member MGP and Salgaoncar withdrew support. The crisis deepened when the lone woman Congress legislator, Victoria Fernandes, quit the 40-member assembly. The Congress, which had 23 MLAs, is now reduced to 19 members.
The assembly's strength will be reduced to 39 after Fernandes' resignation.
Singh had alleged that Goa assembly speaker Pratapsinh Rane had acted "unconstitutionally" when he adjourned the house Friday till Monday. He said the GDA was ready to prove its majority in the house Friday itself.
Meanwhile, the Congress, which has despatched its general secretary in charge of Goa, Margaret Alva, to Panaji to save the Digambar Kamat government, insists it has the constitutional right to save its government.
Elections were held to the Goa assembly June 2. The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine has 19 seats. Smaller parties and independents played kingmakers, taking the strength to 23. The BJP had got 14 seats.
Goa, which has been witnessing political instability for the last two decades, has had 13 chief ministers and three stints of President's Rule since 1990 compared to three chief ministers between 1963 and 1990.