Digambar Kamat survives in Goa, after disallowing 3 votes and Speaker's casting vote
By Frederick Noronha PANAJI Goa, July 30: Goa's chief minister Digambar Kamat clung to power by the skin of his teeth, after three legislators were disallowed from voting, and the Speaker gave his casting vote to save the government on Monday afternoon. Before the vote, Speaker Pratapsing Rane, a long-term former Congress chief minister, passed ad interim exparte orders, restraining three legislators -- who had changed sides last week -- from voting in the house and taking part in its proceedings. This led to a howl of protest from Opposition leader Manohar Parrikar, the BJP strongman who cobbled together an alliance of disparate forces in the pre-dawn hours of last Thursday and expected to become the chief minister of Goa again this week. Parrikar protested saying the Speaker had violated the Goa Governor S C Jamir's fiat to take up the confidence vote as the first business of the assembly. He accused the government of altering the composition of the assembly. But the Speaker asked him under which section of law he was raising a point of order. The Opposition protest was steamrolled through, leading frustrated BJP members and supporters to troop to the Governor's residence at Dona Paula, eight kms from the state assembly at Porvorim on the other side of Panaji. Speaker Rane's casting vote saved the assembly after both sides were tied in the 40-member assembly, with each side having 18 members (apart from one Speaker and three disallowed from voting). The three disqualified were the Dhavalikar brothers -- Sudin and Deepak Dhavalikar -- both representing the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, and Victoria Fernandes who sought to resign from the Congress last week. They were served notice to come up for a hearing on August 13. But while this could send out the signal that the Congress has won the day, the thin majority it is surviving on makes it prone to instability, as also controversy over the manner in which it won the vote. In 2005, instability in the Goa assembly also saw a bitter series of disqualification battle, which only made the battle for power even more intense. (Ends)
