MARGAO: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President (GPCC) Girish Chodankar, while welcoming the Supreme Court verdict on the Manipur defections, said it is now the bounden duty of the Goa Speaker to decide expeditiously on the defection complaints pending before him.
He said the Supreme Court has rightly ordered that the defection petitions should be disposed within three months as otherwise Speakers were sitting on the petition till the term was practically over.
“The Speaker is never unbiased and being a political entity, juggles the matter to get maximum advantage,” he said while pointing out that in Goa, the Congress had filed a petition against the 10 MLA who merged with the BJP. “We had lodged the petition on August 8, 2019 and subsequently submitted a reminder on December 31, 2019 and we urge upon the Speaker to act upon these complaints as soon as possible keeping in mind the Supreme Court order,” he said.
And while pointing out that Manipur and Goa had elections at the same time, he said the order should be made applicable to Goa. “We shall not resist moving the higher judicial set up to get justice for Goa,” Chodankar said, when asked what they would do if the Speaker just continues to dilly dally the matter.
