Parrikar protests as Rane survives with Speaker's vote; Matanhy blocked >From Frederick Noronha Goanet.org
PANAJI (Goa), March 4: Pro-tem Speaker Francisco Sardinha salvaged the Congress government of Pratapsing Rane in the evently divided house, by giving his casting-vote in favour of the 30-day-old government. Both sides, the Congress and BJP, were tied with 16 votes each, after BJP-backing Matanhy Saldanha was disallowed to vote. Pro-tem Speaker, a Congress MLA, restrained the BJP-backing UGDP MLA Matanhy Saldanha from participating in the vote. Matanhy's party, the United Goans Democratic Party, has filed a disqualification petition against their lone remaining MLA. Prior to the Jan-end desertions from the BJP government, the UGDP supported the BJP but since changed tracks. This was the third attempted confidence vote in barely thirty days. Friday's vote was taken amidst expected pandemonium, with the BJP that has fought on bitterly putting up an angry protest in the plush new assembly situated atop a hillock at Alto Porvorim on the suburbs of state-capital Panaji. Ousted former BJP chief minister Manohar Parrikar protested the developments, calling the vote a sham, and demanded that the Rane ministry be sacked and his government be re-instated. Parrikar's government itself came into a minority in end-January 2005, after desertions finally hit his patchwork coalition. This was a foregone conclusion since May 2004, given that politics in Goa since 1990 has usually followed trends of who is in power in Delhi and which party's nominee the Goveror is. Pro-tem Speaker Sardinha moved the motion in the Rane government, after ruling that BJP-supporting Matanhy Saldanha was not entitled to vote, leading to angry BJP protests. Parrikar asked Saldanha to stand and be counted, even if the pro-tem Speaker refused to do so. Since it was tied at 16-16, pro tem Speaker Sardinha said he was using his casting vote in favour of the confidence vote. Another disqualified MLA, the Congress-backing Filipe Neri Rodrigues this morning applied for his disqualification to be reviewed. With the Speakership changing hands from the BJP to the Congress, the tables have turned in some way. But the BJP has sought to pressurise against any such move, saying a pro tem Speaker was not entitled to do so. Arguments in the Rodrigues case were inconclusive, and no decision was taken. Following the angry outcry over the Jharkhand government formation -- where a Congress government was formed inspite of the BJP having a narrow majority -- there were suggestions in the national press that Goa's Congress politicians had been adviced against controversial moves, like disqualifying Saldanha before today's vote. In under fifteen minutes, the House adjourned, with the national anthem. Outsted chief minister Parrikar protested calling the proceedings a sham. He asked for the sacking of the Rane ministry, and said that the Governor had only said that the confidence vote would be the business for the House. In addition, the pro tem Speaker had no right to bar a legislator from voting, Parrikar argued. Parrikar said he was not asking for the dissolution of the Goa assembly as of now. After being ousted from power in a state it ruled since end-1999 -- first through a defector government headed ironically by Francisco Sardinha, now pro tem speaker, and then by the BJP itself -- some BJP leaders have been pushing for dissolution of the Goa assembly. Goa's assembly has 40 seats. Five who ditched the BJP resigned from their seats (to avoid the penal provisions of the anti-defection act). One (Filipe Neri Rodrigues, backing the Congress) was disqualified by the previous BJP speaker. This leaves the House position at a precariously posed 17-17 of the 34 remaining legislators. This figure could change, depending whether there are any further disqualifications or re-qualifications, or defections as politicians shift loyalties, seeing which way the wind is now blowing. Both BJP and Congress legislators had been herded and kept in 'security' in hotels and elsewhere, the the BJP being particularly cautious in taking its flock to Jaipur and elsewhere, indicating it feared possible defections in a state where its ex-chief minister is determined to stay on in power -- or at least force for fresh elections. The national furore raised over the developments in Goa by the BJP leaders after their government fell has put the Congress on the backfoot here. (ENDS) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha 784 Near Convent, Sonarbhat SALIGAO GOA India Freelance Journalist TEL: +91-832-2409490 MOBILE: 9822122436 http://fn.swiki.net http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks fred at bytesforall.org http://www.bytesforall.org
