Philip Neri disqualified

| 28 February 2005 00:01 IST

One and a half hour before the crucial Assembly session, Goa speaker Vishwas Satarkar disqualified deputy chief minister Philip Neri Rodrigues, an independent legislator.

Satarkar, at 1 pm, announced that Rodrigues has been disqualified under the provisions of the tenth schedule of the constitution, without revealing any details of the order.

This has reduced strength of the ruling Congress alliance to 17.

However, chief minister Pratapsing Rane is still having an advantage of one vote since the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party stands at 16 in the 34-member, with BJP’s Satarkar (17th member) sitting in the speaker’s chair.

The speaker today morning also accepted resignation of Digambar Kamat, who had resigned from the BJP last week, reducing their strength to 17.

The BJP had filed the disqualification petition against Rodrigues, after he withdrew his support to the former Manohar Parrikar government on 2 February. The petition had claimed that Rodrigues had joined the BJP in 2002.

After the Parrikar government was reduced to minority, Governor S C Jamir had dismissed his government as the speaker had tried to lift away Rodrigues from the House that was convened to prove Parrikar’s majority on 2 February.

Rane, who was then sworn in same night at 11.30 pm, will be seeking the trust vote today at 2.30 pm.

Meanwhile, the 40-member Goa Assembly has lost five legislators till date, all from the BJP, in an attempt to topple the Parrikar government.

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