Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Lawmaker from Bicholin Assembly Seat Rajesh Patenkar on Tuesday elected as the new Speaker of Goa Assembly. Patenkar defeated his opponent Former Goa Chief Minister Pratapsingh Rane.
Patenkar polled 22 votes against 16 of Congress nominee Pratapsingh Rane. The election of the new speaker in the assembly was necessitated after the former Speaker Pramod Sawant was appointed as the Chief Minister of the tiniest State after the death of CM-In-Office Manohar Parrikar.
Earlier, both the contenders of the post – Rane and Patenkar – submitted their nominations to the Secretary of the Goa Legislative. Following which the Goa Governor Mridula Sinha called a day session of the House to elect a new Assembly Speaker.
It should be noted that Bharatiya Janata Party in recently held by-polls for Panaji Assembly seat fail to retain the seat of Former CM Manohar Parrikar.
Congress’ Atanasio Monserratte won Panaji Assembly seat, held by the late chief minister Manohar Parrikar by defeating Bharatiya Janata Party Candidate Sidharth Kuncalienker with a margin of over 1,775 votes in the by-poll held simultaneously with the Lok Sabha elections.
The By-polls in the Panaji Assembly necessitated after the seat fell vacant after the death of former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
Currently, the Bharatiya Janata Party is heading a coalition government with 17 MLAs from Saffron party, Goa Forward Party has 3, MGP has one, while 3 are Independent MLAs.
While the opposition has 16 MLAs – 15 from Indian National Congress and a lone from Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).
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