Goa Govt to seek trust vote

PANAJI, Nov 24 (PTI) — The Goa Governor, Lt-Gen J.F.R. Jacob (retd), has rejected the beleaguered D’Souza government’s decision not to change the date for the Assembly session and instead summoned the Assembly to meet on November 26 to prove its majority.

Under the notification issued by the Governor late last night, the only business before the House, when it meets on Thursday, would be the vote of confidence, official sources today said.

The notification, convening the session for the trial of strength, was issued on the basis of the consensus arrived at a meeting of leaders of the Goa Rajiv Congress (GRC), the MGP, the BJP and the Congress held at Raj Bhavan last night at the initiative of the Governor, sources said.

The Governor apparently decided to ignore the Cabinet’s contention that it was not necessary to advance the schedule of the session from December 2 to Thursday following the all-party meeting.

The Cabinet had contended it was the prerogative of the Chief Minister and the Council of Ministers to recommend the date for convening of the session.

The political crisis in Goa was triggered last week when four Goa Rajiv Congress MLAs returned to the Congress.It also claimed the support of two of the three Independents.

The GRC is the main coalition partner in the ruling combine consisting of the MGP and the BJP with the latter extending support to the D’Souza government from outside.

The Congress staked the claim to form a government and demanded the resignation of the D’Souza government, claiming that it had been reduced to a minority.

In the 40-member House, the partywise strength earlier was: GRC 10, MGP eight, BJP four, Congress 15 and Independents three. But after the "split" in the GRC, the Congress had claimed its strength had gone up to 19.