Cong scrapes through floor test in Goa

The Congress-led government in Goa scraped through a test of majority today after Speaker Pratapsingh Rane cast his decisive vote in favour of the government.

Rane prevented three rebel legislators "" two from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Congress' Victoria Fernandes "" from voting.

Goa Governor S C Jamir had asked Chief Minister Digamber Kamat to prove his strength on the floor of the House after the two-month-old government was reduced to a minority last week when two MGP MLAs and an Independent (Anil Salgaonkar) withdrew their support and a Congress MLA, Victoria Fernandes, resigned from the 40-member Assembly.

The Speaker restrained Fernandes from voting after a Congress MLA filed a disqualification petition against her. Later, the MGP legislators "" Sudhin Dhawlikar and Deepak Dhawlikar "" were also disallowed to vote following an ex-parte ad-interim order on the two disqualification petitions against them. The duo had withdrawn support from the Congress-led government and had joined hands with the BJP.