Philip Neri's disqualification sought
31 January 2005 22:48 IST The political development took a sudden twist today morning with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party filing a disqualification petition against independent legislator Philip Neri Rodrigues.
Rodrigues, former minister in the Manohar Parrikar government, has resigned from the cabinet and withdrawn his support, in order to form an alternate government.
Official sources clearly indicated that speaker Vishwas Satarkar has started processing the petition, which was filed yesterday but was not disclosed to anybody.
The reason cited for disqualification is also not known.
It would simply mean that Rodrigues would be served notice for hearing immediately, following which he could be disqualified by 3 February, the day chief minister plans to face the floor test.
The move is being viewed as an attempt to woo Rodrigues once again on the side of the Parrikar government or restrain him from entering the House for the trust vote.
After succeeding in retaining United Goans Democratic Party’s tourism minister Mathany Saldhana in his camp, Parrikar now needs at least one more legislator to win the trust vote.
Besides 16 BJP legislators – minus the speaker, Parrikar is having only Saldhana with him in the House that has been reduced to 36, with the resignation of four BJP legislators. One additional vote could tilt the seesaw on his side, while reducing the Congress-led alliance to 17.
