Goa: Congress MLAs meet governor, stake claim to form govt

Panaji, September 19: Goa Congress MLAs met Governor Mridula Sinha Tuesday evening with a request to call a one-day assembly session asking the ruling BJP-led coalition government to prove its majority.

 

The leader of the opposition and Congress leader Chandrakant Kavlekar said that if the ruling government fails to prove majority, Congress is ready to prove its majority as the single largest party in the Goa assembly.

Kavlekar added that Congress MLAs requested the governor to not dissolve the assembly as assembly elections within one and half years is not acceptable. He said that the governor has informed that she will consider the issue in the next three-four days.

Congress has been claiming that chief minister Manohar Parrikar's prolonged illness has paralyzed governance in Goa. Parrikar is currently undergoing treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.

Currently, the 40-member Goa assembly has 16 Congress MLAs; 14 BJP MLAs; three MLAs each of MGP and GFP; one MLA from Nationalist Congress Party; and three independents.

On Monday, BJP central team met the core committee of Goa BJP unit in Panaji to discuss the current political situation in the state arising due to the prolonged illness of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. The central BJP team comprised national party organizational secretaries Ram Lal, B.L. Santosh, and Vijay Puranik.

They held meetings with union minister for Ayush Shripad Naik, Goa BJP president, and Rajya Sabha MP Vinay Tendulkar, and other party members. Members of the alliance partners of the current ruling state government Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Goa Forward Party (GFP) and three independent MLAs also met the central team.