Team Herald
PANJIM: Once elected unopposed as the Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, Pratapsingh Rane faced his first ever political defeat after BJP’s Rajesh Patnekar was elected to the post by 22-16 votes.
Rane, the longest serving legislator of the Goa Assembly, has to his credit of serving six terms as chief minister. After consecutive victory at assembly elections since 1972, the Congress leader was elected unopposed as Speaker in 2007.
While Rane seemed unfazed with the development in the House, which was summoned to elect its new Speaker, the ruling benches left no opportunity to corner the Opposition for nominating him despite knowing NDA’s obvious win.
Panchayat Minister Mauvin Godinho slammed the Congress for pitting Rane for the post of Speaker. “He (Rane) has held every post. I am very disheartened that Congress chose him to contest for the post although the party knew BJP has the majority. They (Congress) have given him the title of a loser when he has won every time,” he said while addressing the House to congratulate the new Speaker.
Party sources said that Rane had refused to contest the election during a meeting of the Congress Legislative Party, but relented to the pressure from some colleagues who insisted that they want to take up the election seriously. Notwithstanding the defeat, Rane was the first to congratulate Patnekar while also advising him to be neutral during every proceedings of the House.
Interestingly, his son and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane voted for the NDA as he showed his loyalty to his party – BJP.
