PANAJI: The Congress MLAs led by Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Chandrakant Kavlekar on Tuesday met Governor Mridula Sinha and urged her to convene a special one-day assembly session for a floor test by the BJP-led coalition government.
“We told Governor to call a special session of the assembly and let the current ruling government prove the majority in a democratic way or else give us an opportunity to prove our numbers to form the government…we have the majority on our side and we are ready to prove it,” said Kavlekar while interacting with media persons along with party MLAs at the Raj Bhavan.
“Earlier, BJP somehow passed the floor test and got away but today it is evident that they are falling short of majority and therefore, unable to choose a new leader as successor to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar,” he added.
Kavlekar informed that the Governor has said that she was aware of the current political developments in the state. However, she is yet to hear from the government’s side. He said, “Governor promised us that she would revert back to us in the next 3-4 days.” He said that the other political parties and its MLAs including BJP MLAs were in touch with the Congress party.
“If BJP imports the new leader from its allies to head the state, then it is unlikely that the BJP MLAs will stay with them, some of the BJP MLAs are already in touch with our party,” Kavlekar claimed but refused to name them. He said that there were no differences among the Congressmen over the chief ministerial candidate adding that the Congress will present their leader on the day when they are invited by the Governor to prove numbers to form the government. Kavlekar dodged questions of the media when asked whether the party has already selected their leader and whether their leader would be a non-Congressman.
Margao MLA Digambar Kamat said the Governor informed the Congress MLAs that she paid a visit to Parrikar at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi on Tuesday where he is undergoing treatment for his pancreatic ailment. “Governor just told us that she met Parrikar and enquired about his health,” he said.
The Opposition party claimed that the Governor has assured them not to dissolve the current assembly and promised to them that she would abide by the Constitution of India.
“Governor assured us that history will not be repeated. The dissolution of assembly which happened in 2002 will not happen again. The Governor accepted that there is a problem here as there was a different statement by the groups in the ruling coalition,” said Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro.
