Notice to Chodankar on plea to disqualify 10 Cong-turned-BJP

Goa Assembly Speaker Rajesh Patnekar on Saturday issued notice to Congress' state chief Girish Chodankar in connection with the disqualification petition filed by him against ten MLAs who had switched sides to the BJP.

The notice, issued to Chodankar by Legislature Secretary Namrata Ulman, stated that hearing on the matter is fixed for February 13 in the speaker's chamber in the Assembly complex in Porvorim.

He had filed the petition under the Tenth schedule of Constitution in August last year demanding that all 10 MLAs, including current deputy chief minister Chandrakant Kavlekar, be disqualified as legislators for "defecting to another party".

The ten MLAs had switched over from the Congress to the BJP in July last year, giving the ruling party a majority of its own (27 seats) in the 40-member House.

The MLAs are Kavlekar, Atanasio Monserratte, Jeniffer Monserratte, Isidore Fernandes, Francis Silveira, Philip Nery Rodrigues, Cleofacio Dias, Wilfred D'Sa, Antonio Fernandes and Nilkant Halarnkar.