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BJP demands trial of strength in Assembly

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: As the Congress-led government in Goa was reduced to a minority, the Bharatiya Janata Party demanded that a special session of the Assembly be convened for a trial of strength to “call the ruling alliance’s bluff.”

The BJP, which sent the former Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy to the State, said the decision to prorogue the Assembly was taken in haste to save the government, which was on the verge of collapse. “It is constitutional deceit.”

Demanding the convening of a special session, BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad said if the Digambar Kamat government “fails to prove its majority, it should be dismissed.”

Before leaving for Goa, Mr. Rudy told a news agency that the BJP was not interested in forming a government as it wanted the “Congress to stand fully exposed for its misdeeds.”

Pawar ’s letter

Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, who sent senior leaders to Goa to hold with talks with the party MLAs who withdrew support to the ruling coalition, said he sent a letter to the Speaker.

In the letter, Mr. Pawar referred to a Bombay High Court ruling which held that refusal by an MLA to heed his party’s directive amounted to defection, attracting disqualification from the Assembly.

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