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)

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