Congress asks Goa Governor to let it form government
Panaji, May 18: Congress leaders met Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, urging her to follow the precedent set in Karnataka and invite the Congress in Goa to form a government as it was the single largest party with 16 MLAs in the Assembly.
Emerging from the Raj Bhavan, Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar told reporters that a representation had been submitted to the Governor, requesting her to "right the past wrong" of inviting the BJP to form the government in Goa in March 2017 and now invite the 16-member Congress legislative party to form the government instead.
"We have asked her to do what the Karnataka Governor has done and invite the Congress as the single largest party to form the government in Goa. This current government has to be dismissed," Kavlekar told reporters.
Kavlekar said that the Congress in Goa was capable of forming a government and prove its majority in the 40-member Assembly if it was invited to do so by Sinha.
"She has told us that she will respond to our letter in two days," Kavlekar said.
The BJP won 13 seats in the 2017 election compared to the 17 won by the Congress, which emerged as the single largest party.
But after swift political maneuvering, the BJP staked claimed to power with two regional parties and independent MLAs and formed a coalition government after getting a swift nod from Governor Mridula Sinha.
A Congress legislator, Vishwajit Rane, subsequently quit the party and joined the BJP -- eventually to become a cabinet minister -- taking the saffron party's strength to 14 in the Assembly.
Currently, the Bharatiya Janata Party and its coalition allies have a strength of 23 legislators, with 14 from the BJP, three each from Goa Forward and Maharashtrwadi Gomantak Party and three independent MLAs.
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BJP using women's quota bill as front to pass Delimitation Bill that will break India: Mamata
Cooch Behar (WB) (PTI): Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday alleged the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre was using the proposed amendment to the women's quota law in Parliament as a front for the Delimitation Bill that would "break the country into pieces".
The TMC will fight this Central government's move at every step, she asserted at her party's poll rally here.
The Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill to tweak the women's quota law, along with the Delimitation Bill and the Union Territories Laws (Amendment) Bill, to implement the proposed amended women's quota law, in the Union territories of Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir, were introduced in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.
According to the Constitution amendment bill, Lok Sabha seats will be increased to a maximum of 850 from the current 543 to "operationalise" the women's reservation law before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats will also be increased in state and Union territory assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
Opposing the Centre's move, Banerjee alleged that "the BJP brought the Delimitation Bill while keeping the women's reservation bill at the front".
"The BJP is trying to increase the number of seats in the Lok Sabha to nearly 850 through the Delimitation Bill. It will break the country into pieces," the TMC supremo said.
She also alleged that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not speaking the truth about the development of north Bengal at a BJP rally last week.
"The prime minister said nothing was done for the development of north Bengal. But we spent Rs 1.72 lakh crore on the development of the region," Banerjee said and asked Modi to cross-check data before making such remarks.
