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GDA delegation meets Shivraj Patil

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Goa politics was in full play here on Thursday with the newly-formed Goa Democratic Alliance (GDA) meeting Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and seeking his intervention and Chief Minister Digambar Kamat calling on Congress president Sonia Gandhi to explain things.

A GDA delegation, led by Anil Salgaonkar, called on Mr. Patil and briefed him about the proceedings in the Assembly on July 30, the day the Kamat Government was directed to take the vote of confidence by the Governor.

The delegation, which arrived here on Tuesday night, gave its view on the manner in which the House was conducted. It wanted the Home Minister have a look at the recordings of the day’s proceedings.

“Decision mala fide”

BJP leader Rajiv Pratap Rudy, in-charge of party affairs in the State, said the delegation told Mr. Patil that Speaker Pratapsinh Rane’s decision to debar some members from voting was mala fide.

Mr. Rudy said the Home Minister heard them patiently and said that the issue was now in the court.

At their meeting with Ms. Gandhi, the Chief Minister and senior party leaders narrated the sequence of events leading to the securing of confidence vote by the Government in the Assembly. They told her that the Speaker was well within his authority to suspend three legislators, including two belonging to the Maharatshtrawadi Gomantak Party, from taking part in the proceedings.

Court moved

The two MLAs, Pandurang Dhavlikar and Sudin Dhavlikar, on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court challenging the Speaker’s decision.

The Goa crisis figured at the meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board here on Thursday evening.

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