Goa speaker dismisses disqualification petition against 12 MLAs

Goa legislative assembly Speaker Rajesh Patnekar on Tuesday dismissed two disqualification petitions filed against 12 BJP MLAs, nearly 20 months after the 10 Congress MLAs and 2 Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party legislators crossed over to the ruling saffron party, triggering outrage in the coastal state.

Patnekar passed two oral orders on Tuesday dismissing the petitions filed by state Congress president Girish Chodankar and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar, even as the Supreme Court earlier this month, had directed the Speaker to pass the order on April 20.

Both Chodankar and Dhavalikar have expressed disappointment at the order, even as the former said that the passing of the order after 20 months would now enable Congress to exercise further legal options.

"Now that an order has been passed, we have various options. Our legal team is assessing options. We will either be challenging the order in HC or mention it in SC when matter comes up there," Chodankar told reporters.

Chodankar in his petition before the SC had accused Patnekar of adopting delaying tactics while hearing the disqualification petition. Chodankar in his petition had argued that the split in the party caused by the 10 MLAs and their subsequent claim to have merged the Congress party in Goa into the BJP, was illegal and violative of the provisions of Schedule 10 of the Indian Constitution.

He also said that the Speaker's order had political overtones and had been carried out at the bidding of Goa Bharatiya Janata Party's organisational secretary Satish Dhond.

Dhavalikar also said that he would be in a position to comment on the order once he received a written copy of the order, but did not rule out appealing against it. "We will see once we read the order," Dhavalikar said.

In his petition, Dhavalikar had sought disqualification of two former MGP MLAs Manohar Ajgaonkar and Deepak Prabhu Pauskar, who also split the party and merged it with the BJP in March 2019.

Currently, the ruling government in Goa has the support of 27 BJP MLAs and one independent MLA.