After day of high drama, Cong gets Goa at midnight

Goa's governor S C Jamir capped a day’s political drama in the state legislature by dismissing the Manohar Parrikar government and, hou...

Goa’s governor S C Jamir capped a day’s political drama in the state legislature by dismissing the Manohar Parrikar government and, hours later, installing a new Congress government.

The two-member cabinet—Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane and his deputy, Philipe Neri Rodrigues, the Independent MLA who was disqualified earlier today by the Speaker—was sworn in by Jamir at Raj Bhavan at 11.30 p.m.

The late night coronation followed the dismissal of the Parrikar government after it won a confidence vote. Barely had Parrikar’s supporters begun to celebrate his questionable victory in the trust vote when news of his dismissal came.

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Parrikar’s trusted political lieutenant-turned-Speaker Vishwas Satarkar disqualified Rodrigues under an obscure law and declared the government’s victory to mark yet another strange turn in the state’s politics.

Satarkar declared the government victorious amidst chaos in the House. With the Congress-led opposition alliance and the ruling BJP-led government evenly matched with 18 MLAs each in the house, Satarkar asked Rodrigues to be removed from the House to give his party an advantage in the trust vote. The Speaker cited Rule 289 of the Procedures on Conducting the Business of the House to remove Rodrigues.

The opposition MLAs, however, contested the move saying it only applied to members of the House engaging in disorderly conduct. Even as the Opposition MLAs scuffled with the marshals trying to throw out Neri, the Speaker called the vote to be taken. As the confused MLAs from the Congress-led alliance struggled to get their act together, Satarkar called the trust vote and declared the government victorious with 18 votes in favour and six against.

Parrikar blamed the Congress MLAs for the confusion. ‘‘The voting could have been orderly had the Congress MLAs sat in their places,’’ Parrikar said. He, however, went on to say that a few Congress MLAs may have been counted as supporting his confidence motion since they were on their feet, shouting.

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Outside the house, angry Congress MLAs wanted action from Raj Bhavan. ‘‘An elected MLA was denied the right to vote,’’ they shouted amidst chants of ‘‘shame, shame.’’

Earlier in the day, the Speaker heard a disqualification petition against Philip Neri Rodrigues filed by a BJP MLA.

The petitioner sought Neri’s disqualification since he had joined the BJP in 2002 and had not quit the party.

He had, however, contested and won as an Independent. With the governor warning against Neri’s disqualification, the Speaker suspended his verdict against the MLA.