Goa heading for dissolution
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 05 February 1999 11:35 IST
Goa appears to be heading for dissolution by the month end and early polls, no matter whether the ruling Congress survives confidence vote on Monday or the non-Congress coalition headed by Dr Wilfred de Souza comes to power.
Congress chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, after pushed into minority yesterday with two of his ministers joining hands with the opposition, has officially demanded dissolution of the House to end ongoing political instability in the tourist state.
Though governor J F R Jacob has turned down his request and asked him to face the floor test by Monday, the Congress plans to go ahead with its demand for dissolution even after winning the confidence vote. "It was my demand yesterday, today and would stand by it tomorrow", he says.
While people are totally fed up with four governments in seven months with the same bunch of opportunist politicians changing sides repeatedly, the governments coming to power are also having majority of hardly one or two in the 40-member House, which makes horse-trading easy.
Sensing the people’s mood, de Souza also clearly disclosed his plans to go for dissolution by the month end even if he takes over the reins of the non-Congress coalition government, provided the governor invites him to form the government. The session for Faleiro’s floor test is convened on Monday at 5 pm.
"Preponing the budget session, I can well get the vote of account passed in this month itself and demand dissolution of the House", said de Souza when asked whether he would fulfil people’s demand of early polls.
As the general Assembly elections are hardly ten months away, even the opposition parties including the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak party and the Bharatiya Janata party, which are supporting de Souza to form the government, have opted for dissolution of the House.
"We will ensure that polls are held by May end or June", says BJP spokesperson Manohar Parrikar. He feels passing the budget should not be a restraint to recommend dissolution. But the four BJP legislators plan to finalise their strategy only after Monday.
Goa PCC chief Shantaram Naik also echoed the same demand, stating that early polls is the best option. He however hopes that the governor dissolves the House without allowing de Souza to form the government and imposes President’s rule in the tourist state.
In fact, what appears is the tussle between the ruling Congress and de Souza’s non-Congress coalition to remain as the caretaker chief minister and holding early polls rather than governing the state till general elections, scheduled in November.
Meanwhile, governor Jacob today rejected Faleiro’s demand to grant him two more days to seek confidence vote, under the pretext that some Congress legislators were out of Goa. De Souza wonders how Faleiro can justify this when he demands dissolution of the House.
The coalition leader, representing the Goa Rajiv Congress, has already announced his plans that the whole coalition would face the polls as one entity, though the BJP has still not responded to the idea of alliance positively. They prefer seat adjustments rather than aligning with regional parties.
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