Last Updated: July 22, 2022, 2:37 PM IST
The fight is between the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) Joshua De Souza (Left) and the Congress’s woman MLA Delialah Lobo. (Photo: Twitter/News18)
The monsoon session of the state assembly, which began last week, will conclude on Friday
BJP MLA Joshua De Souza was on Friday elected as the Deputy Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly. The election for the post of was held on Friday, during the ongoing monsoon session of the assembly. De Souza polled 24 votes, while Congress candidate Delialah Lobo was supported by 12 opposition MLAs.
Two members of the Aam Admi Party (AAP) and the lone MLA of the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP), both belonging to the opposition benches, abstained from voting. Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar and others congratulated De Souza on his win.
De Souza, 33, represents the Mapusa assembly constituency in North Goa. He was first elected as the MLA in 2019 following the death of his father, Francis De Souza, who was then a minister in the state cabinet.
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Congress MLA Carlose Alvares Ferreira had said the party fielded Delialah Lobo for the post. Admitting that the opposition parties do not have sufficient numbers to win the election for the post of deputy speaker, Ferreira said, “Anything can happen during voting.” In the 40-member Goa Assembly, the ruling BJP has 20 MLAs, and it enjoys the support of five others – two from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independents.
The Congress had won 11 seats in the assembly polls held in February this year. The Goa Forward Party (GFP) and the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) had won one seat each, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had bagged two seats.
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