By IANS
Panaji/New Delhi : Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat barely survived a confidence vote Monday after three legislators were disqualified and the speaker pitched in to save the government, a move the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) termed "unconstitutional".
Speaker Pratapsing Rane, a long-term Congress loyalist who finally used his casting vote to save the Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government, restrained three legislators who had switched sides last week from voting in the house and taking part in its proceedings.
This led to protests by opposition leader Manohar Parrikar, the BJP strongman who cobbled together an alliance last week with the hope of becoming chief minister again.
Parrikar protested saying the speaker had violated Governor S.C. Jamir's fiat to take up the confidence vote as the first business of the day. He accused the government of altering the composition of the assembly.
Rane asked him under which section of law was he raising a point of order.
The opposition protest was brushed aside, leading frustrated BJP members to storm out and march to the governor's residence along with a large number of BJP supporters.
Speaker Rane's casting vote saved the assembly after both sides were tied in the 40-member assembly, each with 18 members (apart from the speaker and three disallowed from voting).
The three disqualified were the Dhavalikar brothers – Sudin and Deepak Dhavalikar – both representing the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), and Victoria Fernandes, who sought to resign from the Congress last week.
They were served a notice that is to come up for a hearing Aug 13. But while this could send out the signal that the Congress has won the day, the thin majority it is surviving on makes it prone to instability and invites controversy over the manner in which it won the vote.
Political developments last week saw the Congress-led government reduced to a minority after its coalition partner MGP and an independent legislator, Anil Salgaocar, withdrew their support.
Parrikar had requested the governor to direct the speaker to conduct a floor test Monday.
Meanwhile in Delhi, senior BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy expressed shock at the developments. "We did not expect this. It is totally illegal and unconstitutional.
"If the speaker decides to take democracy and dump it into the sea what can we do?" Rudy remarked.
But Margaret Alva, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Goa, justified Rane's action and the victory of the Congress led government.
She said: "Victoria Fernandes while being a member of the Congress joins hands with the rival group, goes to Delhi with them and parades before the president. Naturally she was restrained from voting."
On MGP legislators being restrained from voting, she said: "It is not we but the MGP general secretary who filed an affidavit on which the speaker acted."