Congress Protests Goa Governor's Address, Stages Walkout

The Goa Legislative Assembly today witnessed protests during the speech by Governor Mridula Sinha with Opposition Congress legislators staging a walkout midway. The members, sporting black bands, were protesting Governor's action of not inviting them to form the government in the state despite emerging as the single largest party during the recently held Assembly polls.

"It was a murder of democracy when Governor refused us an opportunity to form the government," Goa's leader of opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar said when the Governor stood up to address the House.

"We were not allowed to form the government despite having the numbers at our side," he added.

All other Congress legislators also stood up in protest to join Mr Kavlekar but when the Governor continued with her speech, they staged a walkout.

The address, however went on smoothly after that.

During the recently held Assembly polls, Congress had won 17 seats relegating the BJP to the second position at 13 in the 40-member House. However, the BJP managed to forge a post-poll alliance with regional forces and independents to form the government under Manohar Parrikar.

Following this, senior Congress legislator Vishwajit Rane tendered his resignation from the party. Mr Rane had also walked out from the legislative assembly on March 16, before Mr Parrikar's government sough, and eventually won, a vote of confidence. Mr Rane had been a frontrunner for the chief ministership if the Congress had formed the government. He was reportedly upset after the Congress failed to move quickly to win support of independents and regional parties.