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Sunday, Feb 06, 2005

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Front Page

Goa Speaker should go: Congress

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 5. The newly installed Goa Chief Minister, Pratapsinh Rane, today said the State Assembly Speaker, Vishwas Satarkar, should step down from the post, failing which he would be removed.

Questioning the conduct of the Speaker during the vote of confidence by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party-led Manohar Parrikar Government this week, Mr. Rane said a notice expressing no confidence in Mr. Satarkar and the Deputy Speaker, was submitted to the Governor, S.C. Jamir.

Mr. Rane, who was here to consult the party central leadership, said he was sure his Government would be able to win the confidence vote in the Assembly.

The Chief Minister said he had already requested the Governor to set a time frame for the new Government to prove its majority on the floor of the House.

At a press conference, Mr. Rane, along with the Goa Congress chief, Luizinho Falerio, and the All-India Congress Committee general secretary Margaret Alva, in-charge of party affairs in the State, denied that dissidence had surfaced in the 15-member Congress legislature party after the expansion that led to the inclusion of three allies and two former BJP members, who had since rejoined the Congress.

"There is no problem absolutely... the majority of our MLAs were not asking for posts. They are glad the Government [of Mr. Parrikar] has gone. We are sure all the Congress workers are united and there would be more desertions in the BJP camp," they said.

Mr. Rane and Mr. Falerio, now a Minister, accused the Speaker of being in league with Mr. Parrikar.

They said the vote of confidence was taken by head count when plainclothes police were inside the Assembly to evict the Independent MLA, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, now the Deputy Chief Minister. "In the melee, the then Chief Minister tells the Speaker to announce the results, and never before has it happened that voting goes on when strangers are present on the floor of the House. People who do not believe in democracy talk of its murder," Mr. Falerio said.

Speaker rejects demand

PTI reports from Panaji:

Mr. Satarkar, today rejected the demands for his resignation and attacked the Governor, S.C. Jamir, saying he had "no right to interfere in my business and ... has no right to interfere in the business of the Assembly."

Rejecting the Congress' demand for his resignation, he said: "The question does not arise. I will not resign. As the House had elected me unanimously, it is up to the House to decide whether they have faith in me or not."

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