PANJIM: Congress on Thursday petitioned Governor Mridula Sinha demanding the immediate revocation of the appointment of Siddharth Kukalienkar as Protem Speaker.
Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Chandrakant Kavalekar in a letter to the Governor pointed out that as per the Constitution, the Protem Speaker needs to be a senior most MLA, with vast experience for conduct of fair and transparent proceedings. He stated Kunkalienkar, who is one of the youngest MLAs and being a close aide of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, will not be in position to give justice.
Addressing media persons, AICC Secretary Girish Chodankar said the party has demanded that Kunkalienkar’s appointment be immediately
revoked as it is against Constitutional convention.
“As per procedure laid down in the Constitution, the Secretary Legislature has to submit the list of all MLAs-elect with their age to the Governor for appointment of Protem Speaker. However, in this case, no such list was produced. BJP is using government machinery as well as Governor’s office,” he stated.
Congress MLA-elect Pratapsingh Rane is the senior most member in the House and it was expected that he would be appointed as Protem Speaker.
