Panaji: Election for the post of Deputy Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly will be held on Friday, and the fight is between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Joshua De Souza and the Congress’s woman MLA Delialah Lobo.
The Congress, which has fielded Lobo – its only woman legislator in the state – has admitted that the opposition camp does not have enough strength to win the election, but maintained that “anything can happen during voting”.
The monsoon session of the state assembly, which began last week, will conclude on Friday.
De Souza, who represents Mapusa assembly constituency, filed his nomination papers on Thursday and thanked Chief Minister Pramod Sawant for giving him an opportunity.
“Honoured by the opportunity given by the Hon’ble #ChiefMinister of #Goa Dr Pramod Sawant ji for nominating my name for the post of #DeputySpeaker of #GoaLegislativeAssembly,” he said.
He also thanked other BJP leaders, including the party’s state unit chief Sadanand Tanavade.
Congress MLA Carlose Alvares Ferreira said the party has fielded Delialah Lobo for the post.
Admitting that the opposition parties do not have sufficient numbers to win the election for the post of deputy speaker, Ferreira said, “Anything can happen during voting.” In the 40-member Goa Assembly, the ruling BJP has 20 MLAs, and it enjoys the support of five others – two from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independents.
The Congress had won 11 seats in the assembly polls held in February this year. The Goa Forward Party (GFP) and the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) had won one seat each, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had bagged two seats. —PTI
