Mumbai: Pramod Sawant, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator from Sankhalim in North Goa, was on Wednesday elected speaker of the Goa legislative assembly. Sawant won 20 votes against 15 for Congress legislator Aleixo Reginaldo. The strength of the 40-member Goa assembly came down to 39 after Congress legislator Vishwajeet Rane resigned and quit the Congress party soon after the BJP-led coalition won a floor test on 16 March. Sawant, 44, is a second time BJP member of the legislative assembly, and a homeopathic doctor.
The three-day budget session of the Goa assembly began on Wednesday with the speaker’s election. Two legislators, including Reginaldo himself, could not reach the assembly in time due to “traffic congestion”, according to chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who requested the new speaker to set right the clock in the legislature, which was “running four minutes fast”. BJP legislator Nilesh Cabral also could not vote as he failed to reach the assembly because of traffic snarls.
Nationalist Congress Party’s lone legislator Churchill Alemao, who had voted for the BJP in the floor test, remained seated when the protem speaker Siddharth Kuncolienkar called for a head count. The BJP had won the floor test 22 to 16 after Rane walked out, reducing the Congress strength from 17 to 16.
On Thursday, Goa governor Mridula Sinha will address the assembly. Parrikar, who holds the finance portfolio, will present Goa’s budget estimates for 2017-18 on Friday.
