‘Inspired’ by Karnataka, Goa Cong knocks on Raj Bhavan doors

Inspired by the ongoing developments in Karnataka, the Congress, the principal Opposition party in Goa on Friday, knocked on the doors of Raj Bhavan, asking the Governor Dr. Mridula Sinha to give the single largest party an opportunity to form Government in the coastal State, on the lines of the immediate precedent set by counterpart and Vajubhai Vala in Karnataka.

The BJP has called the Congress move “weird” and worthy of contempt.

Thirteen out of the 16 Congress MLAs in the Goa legislative Assembly met the Governor at Raj Bhavan, with a written representation asking Sinha to invite Congress legislative party leader Babu Kavlekar to form Government, on the virtue of the party heading the single largest legislative unit in the State, with three more seats than the BJP, which heads a coalition Government in Goa.

“We have asked the Governor to treat our request on par with the decision taken by the honourable Governor of Karnataka. In March 2017, the Goa Governor had invited the BJP to form a Government in Goa, despite the fact that he Congress was the single largest party in the Assembly,” Kavlekar told The Pioneer, after meeting the Governor. The Congress, as well as Opposition parties in States other than Goa where the single largest party has not been invited to form Government in recent elections, has also stepped up pressure on their respective Governors, asking the latter to invite them to form Government citing the Karnataka development, when Vala invited BJP leader and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa to become Chief Minister on the grounds that the BJP has the largest number — although short of majority — of MLAs.