NT Staff Reporter
Panaji Feb 1: Political circle is abuzz with the speculations; will he or won�t he. Barely 24 hours left for the final countdown, and gesticulations are being made about the future of the state politics.
And undoubtedly the person at the centre of the political criss-cross has been the Chief Minister, Mr Manohar Parikar. Questions are being raised in the political circle as to how the Chief Minister, in the number game, would turn the situation, because he has one member less than the opposition.
It is also a fact that the future of the Congress is at stake. Since the political crisis needs political management, the final outcome depends on the adept handling of the management.
As things stand today, with both parties tied at 18 MLAs each, the Congress has an edge because the Speaker has no voting rights and therefore, the Congress are one up.
The Congress has also equal strength of 18 and the party leaders are confident of all its MLAs casting their votes against the motion thereby dislodging the two-and-half-year-old Parrikar government.
One expert feels that the BJP can upset the Congress applecart by resorting to some of the actions below.
One is to disqualify the Independent MLA, Mr Filip Neri Rodrigues, who is now supporting the Congress. There is already a disqualification petition filed against him and the Speaker, Mr Viswas Satarkar can issue an order tomorrow debarring him from casting his vote. Though it denies natural justice, this has been done before which subsequently was overruled by the High Court.
Second is to get one or more Congressmen to resign or abstain from voting and thereby reduce their strength.
The third possibility, the expert feels, is that both the Speaker and Deputy Speaker resign forcing the Governor to place the assembly into suspended animation. During this period, the MLAs can re-arrange themselves. But the expert feels that this is another kind of horse-trading.
Though apparently, the Congress leaders are enjoying a one-man majority, they are not expected to be sitting idle. They are also expected to be manoeuvering to get BJP MLAs to cross over to their side to further strengthen their numbers.
With the four-and-half year BJP rule in Goa, the opposition Congress party has weakened which helped the BJP to strengthen its base in the state.
The BJP leaders, especially the Chief Minister, have a very cordial relations with some of the Congress MLAs and political observers are expecting that this may be a trump card, perhaps Mr Parrikar may make use in tomorrow�s trial of strength.
Besides, internal fights over the leadership issue and other trivial matters the Congress has always remained divided. The BJP has taken advantage of this situation to establish link with some MLAs.
However, the Congress camp deny such things to happen as its leaders say that all the Congress-led United Legislature Party constituents are firmly united and that the defeat of the Parrikar government is imminent.
In the annals of the Goa assembly, there is precedent of disqualification of MLAs. The then speaker, Mr Tomazinho Cardozo had disqualified 10 MLAs from the House and debarred them from casting vote. Subsequently, the speaker�s decision had been challenged in the High Court, which quashed it and set aside.
However, political pundits say that the Independent MLA can extend support to any political combination staking claim to form the government. Besides, the High Court also in some cases had clearly indicated that sufficient time should be given for disqualifying a member.
In event, if there was a cross-voting or some members abstained from voting from either side the calculations over the present strength on paper may change. Such situation would be detrimental for the political stability of the state.
The political observers feel that in event the strength on either side change, the Governor would have a strong ground to recommend dissolution of the assembly. This is more so because the change in number other than what exist on paper would create instability in future and this would give a ground to recommend dissolution of the House.
The former advocate-general of the state, Mr Carlos Fereira, opines that there is no basis for disqualifying Mr Rodrigues.
Asked to comment on the disqualification petition filed before the Speaker, Mr Viswas Satarkar, by Bharatiya Janata Party MLA, Mr Sadanand Mhalu Shet, he said Mr Rodrigues was an Independent legislator and that he had not voluntarily given up membership of any political party to attract disqualification.
Mr Rodrigues has only resigned as minister from the cabinet headed by Mr Manohar Parrikar, he added. Resignation of a minister did not constitute giving up membership of a political party.
Secondly, there has to be a declaration by Mr Rodrigues in Form I and Form III, which he should file before the Speaker, declaring that he has joined a particular party. So also the political party which he is supposed to have joined also has to give similar declaration stating that its strength has gone up due to induction of a new member. But since this has not been done there is no basis for the Speaker to disqualify Mr Rodrigues.
The views of Mr Fereira were concurred by Mr Subodh Kantak, a senior High Court advocate. Both the senior advocates further said the Constitution of India stipulates that there cannot be a vacancy to the post of Speaker. The Constitution provides that the Speaker can resign by writing a letter addressed to the deputy speaker. So also the deputy speaker can resign by writing to the Speaker. Resignation of Speaker and deputy speaker at the same time is constitutionally impermissible. Constitution envisages no vacuum or vacancy in the post of Speaker. The post of the Speaker is so important that vacancy is not being recognised at any point of time, whether or when the House is dissolved or placed under suspended animation, the Speaker continues to be in the post, they said further.
The senior advocates also said the Constitution has contemplated that the resignation of Speaker or deputy speaker or by the surviving chairperson of the House, addressed to any other person say to the Governor, the Chief Minister or any other person is not permissible to create a vacancy in the chair of the Speaker. The senior counsels further said that in case the Speaker resigns the deputy speaker shall take over and discharge duties of the Speaker for conducting the proceedings of the House.
- Forwarded by Gaspar Almeida, www.goa-world.com
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