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Speaker disqualifies Goa CM

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

Newly sworn-in Chief Minister Dr Wilfred de Souza, along with his nine cabinet colleagues and the deputy speaker, were disqualified by Goa Speaker Thomazinho Cardoz today, with retrospective effect from July 27.

Though de Souza has announced his plans to rush to the court to seek a stay order on their disqualification, he has only six days left, including two holidays, to prove the majority of his coalition government in the 40-member House.

The coalition, comprising de Souza's Goa Rajiv Congress, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, now have 23 MLAs in their camp; the Congress has the remaining 17, including two independent MLAs. de Souza can lose the confidence motion if the disqualified members cannot participate in confidence vote.

While the judgement was delivered this evening, Congress MLA Dominic Fernandes filed yet another disqualification petition in the morning against all the 10 members, asking for ex-parte ad-interim relief to restrain them from attending house proceedings for the confidence motion.

Meanwhile, the Goa bench of the Bombay high court today completed a marathon hearing that has been going on for the last two days on the petition filed by former chief minister Pratapsing Rane, challenging his dismissal by the governor.

The judgment on it is to be delivered on Tuesday. The high court has to once again hear another petition challenging the speaker's disqualification order. Prior to this, the high court had quashed the speaker's ex-parte ad-interim order that had restrained the de Souza group from entering the house, to vote against the confidence motion moved by former chief minister Pratapsing Rane on July 29.

Though the speaker has told the 10 members to appear before him for the hearing on Monday morning, de Souza says the question does not arise when he has already disqualified them. He is also confident of being present in the house by August 19 to move the confidence motion and win it.

Political instability has been plaguing Goa since July 27, when 10 Congressmen under de Souza had split and staked claim to form the government along with the MGP and the BJP. After waiting for two days for Rane to prove his majority in the house, the governor dismissed the Congress government on July 29.

Though 10 members were more than a third of the then 23-member ruling Congress, the speaker has disqualified them stating that they had failed to prove that the party organisation had also split, another legal requirement.

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