Goa assembly speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Friday dismissed the disqualification petition filed by the Congress against eight of its MLAs who defected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in 2022.
The Assam Assembly has passed the Uniform Civil Code Bill, aiming to establish a common legal framework for marriage, divorce, succession, and live-in relationships, irrespective of religion. This makes Assam the third state in India to pass such a bill, following Uttarakhand and Gujarat.
"I wanted to preserve them. But they were destroyed. I am sorry, this should not happen. Now since 2000, we are preserving the records and their digitisation is being done," Sawant said addressing a gathering on Monday.
Governor S C Jamir administered the oath of office and secrecy to Sequeira at Raj Bhavan in the presence of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and others.
Counting of votes begins in Tamil Nadu, Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, and West Bengal, with significant implications for regional and national parties.
Goa's former Tourism Minister and controversial Nationalist Congress Party leader Fransisco 'Miccky' Pacheco on Friday resigned as a member of the legislative assembly, two months ahead of the State elections.
Former Union Minister Pusapati Ashok Gajapathi Raju appointed as the Governor of Goa, Kavinder Gupta named as the new Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, and Ashim Kumar Ghosh will be the new Governor of Haryana.
The four-day old Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government will face the floor test on July 4 during the special two-day session of the Legislative Assembly beginning on Mumbai Sunday.
"I was not happy in Congress. The Congress state leadership has failed completely," Madkaikar said.
The move could be attributed to the withdrawal of support to the state government by the Nationalist Congress Party and some independent legislators.
The governor was convinced that the conduct of proceedings in the assembly was absolutely chaotic and was a serious blot on democracy, a communique from Raj Bhavan said.
President Droupadi Murmu attended the funeral Mass of Pope Francis at St Peter's Square in Vatican City on Saturday. She was part of an official Indian delegation led by the President and also paid homage to Pope Francis at the Basilica of St Peter. India had declared a three-day state mourning on the passing of Pope Francis, who died on Monday at the age of 88.
Michael Lobo, who resigned as deputy speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, and three of the 10 MLAs who joined the BJP -- Chandrakant Kavlekar, Jeniffer Monserratte, Philip Neri Rodrigues -- were sworn in as new ministers.
Watch this space to see what happens in the politically volatile state.
The recent move by a group of eight Congress MLAs in Goa to merge with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was as per constitutional norms, state assembly speaker Ramesh Tawadkar said.
Left with just three MLAs, the Congress does not have the required one tenth of the legislative strength in the 40-member House to claim the Cabinet minister-level post.
However, the action is not going to have any impact as the arithmetic still favours the Congress, which has 17 MLAs in a House of 34. The BJP has 16.
Sawant took the oath in Konkani language.
Besides 11 members from BJP, three each from the Goa Forward Party, the MGP and independents supported Sawant during the head count conducted in the House.
In yet another jolt the Congress ahead of the Goa Assembly polls, the party's state working president, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, resigned as member of the legislative assembly on Monday, reducing the party's strength to two in the 40-member House.
Parrikar was being treated in Mumbai for pancreatitis since February 15.
The opposition Congress could muster only 16 votes against the government with one of its legislators absenting from the crucial floor test.
'Parrikar died twice...once on March 17 physically while today it is the death of his political legacy'
Five Congress legislators, who have been lobbying against Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat, have decided to meet assembly Speaker Pratapsingh Rane to urge him to take charge of the top post, sources close to them said on Wednesday. The legislators are backed by a group of seven legislators including three from the Nationalist Congress Party, two from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, one from the United Goans Democratic party and an independent, they said.
Prime Minister Modi and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh would be present at the function, a government spokesperson said.
Rane did not rule out the possibility of joining the BJP, saying 'all options are open'.
Sawant, who took over as chief minister for the first time in March 2019, brought the BJP tantalizingly close to the simple majority mark of 21, defying pre-poll predictions of a hung assembly.
The two-time MLA from Sankhalim in North Goa, Sawant, who was speaker of the state assembly, is a dedicated Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh worker.
The two would-be Dy CMs are Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar.
The swearing-in ceremony of Pramod Sawant as Goa's chief minister will be held on March 28 and prominent Bharatiya Janata Party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, will attend the event.
The numbers game seems weighed against Pratapsinh Rane.
In the 2017 state assembly polls, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats.
As per the power-sharing arrangement, Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar will be the deputy chief ministers.
Narvekar, who polled 164 votes, defeated Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena candidate Rajan Salvi who got 107 votes.
The lowest victory margin of 76 was recorded in St Andre constituency in North Goa, where Revolutionary Goans Party, a new political outfit in the state, made its debut by defeating BJP candidate and sitting MLA Francis Silveira. RGP candidate Viresh Borkar won the contest.
"We have decided to approach the Supreme Court to get justice despite having numbers on our side. The floor-test was bulldozed by the Speaker," Manohar Parrikar, GDA leader, told PTI on Monday night.
Five Goa Congress MLAs, who went incommunicado a day before, attended the state assembly proceedings on the first day of the monsoon session on Monday, and claimed there was 'nothing wrong' in the opposition party.
The Congress has accused the two MLAs of hobnobbing with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to bring about a split in the opposition party.
