Goemkarponn Desk
PANAJI: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Amit Patkar today has submitted a memorandum to Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar demanding to immediately disqualify newly appointed Minister Aleixo Sequeira pending disqualification petition.
“I have submitted a memorandum Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar demanding to immediately disqualify newly appointed Minister Aleixo Sequeira pending disqualification petition. He should be disqualified,” said Patkar speaking to media
He further questioned as how ministerial berth can be given to MLA when he has a disqualification petition pending against him.
“I have also urged the speaker to to write to Governor Pillai on the same issue and to disqualify him,” he added
BJP MLA Aleixo Sequeira, who switched over from the Congress to the saffron party last year, was inducted into the state cabinet, hours after Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Nilesh Cabral resigned.
The 66-year-old leader was sworn in at Raj Bhavan by Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai in the presence of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant.
Earlier, Cabral, who held portfolios, including PWD, environment and law and judiciary, resigned to make way for the induction of Sequeira. Cabral (51) represents the Curchorem assembly constituency.
Sequeira was among the eight MLAs who switched over from the opposition Congress to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the coastal state last year.
The BJP retained power in Goa in the 2022 assembly election when it won 20 of the state’s 40 assembly seats, just one short of a majority. The party further bolstered its strength by getting support from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and independents.
Then in September last year, the Opposition in Goa was further weakened when eight Congress MLAs defected to merge with the ruling BJP.
Sequeira was the eighth MLA to defect and made it possible to take the number of defectors to 2/3rd of the Congress’s legislative strength. This made it straightforward for the defectors to merge with the BJP without facing disqualification.
