Cong asks Goa speaker to speed up disqualification of 10 MLAs

The Congress in Goa on Wednesday filed a petition before Assembly Speaker Rajesh Patnekar requesting him to initiate proceedings to disqualify the ten MLAs of the Opposition party who had switched over to the BJP in August, 2019, "without further delay".

The petitioner and Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar has sought disqualification of the ten MLAs under the 10th schedule of the Constitution.

The application for disqualification was filed before the Speaker on August 8, 2019.

"The applicant/petitioner has filed the petition under Article 191(2) of the Constitution read with Xth schedule of the Constitution seeking a declaration that respondent no. 1 to 10 has incurred disqualification under the provisions of schedule X of the constitution," it stated.

Chodankar stated that the Speaker had called for a preliminary hearing on his application on October 5 last year, but he is yet to hear from the speaker about the next course of action in the matter.

"It has been almost five months since the filing of the disqualification petition, however, no effective progress has taken place in the matter," Chodankar said, adding that the "delay is resulting into the ten MLAs getting undue and undeserving advantage of continuation as legislators".

The ten MLAs--Chandrakant Kavlekar, Isidore Fernandes, Jeniffer Monserrate, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Nilkant Halarnkar, Antonio Fernandes, Francisco Silveira, Wilfred D'Sa, Clafasio Dias and Antanasio Monserrate--had shifted their loyalties to the BJP, raising the strength of the ruling party to 27 in the 40-member House.

After joining BJP, Kavlekar was made deputy Chief Minister, Isidore Fernandes Deputy Speaker of the Assembly, Jeniffer Monserrate Revenue Minister, and Filipe Neri Rodrigues Water Resources Department Minister.

After the ten MLAs pulled off a coup, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant dropped four ministers of BJP's then allies including the Goa Forward Party.

The Congress currently has five MLAs.