PANAJI: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s Sankhali MLA Dr Pramod Sawant on Tuesday filed nomination papers for the post of Speaker of the state assembly while from the Opposition side Congress MLA Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco filed the nomination for the same.
The election for the Speaker’s post will be held in the assembly at 11.30 on Wednesday, the first day of the budget session.
Sawant filed the nomination papers in the office of protem Speaker Siddharth Kuncolienkar, which was received by legislature secretary Nilkanth Subedhar.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, Town and Country Minister Vijai Sardesai, Public Works Department Minister Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar, other ministers and BJP MLAs were present during the filing of nomination papers.
On the other hand, Congress legislature party leader Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar told a press conference held in the Congress House on Tuesday that the party was confident of Lourenco winning the election because people of Goa had voted for the Congress. Maintaining that all CLP members unanimously decided to nominate Lourenco for the post, Kavlekar said that if conscience tells non-BJP MLAs that the poll verdict has been against the BJP then they should vote for the Congress candidate.
Lourenco, who was also present at the press conference, said, “We will fight it out. Our aim is to win. We want to send a message to the people of Goa that we are united and not a divided house.”
He said the Congress would approach the lone Nationalist Congress Party MLA Churchill Alemao and Independent legislators for their support.
The Congress, which had won 17 seats in the recent assembly polls, has now 16 legislators, as its MLA Vishwajeet Rane resigned on March 14 from the party and as the Valpoi legislator.