Goa Governor should invite us to form govt: Cong

The Congress party on Thursday demanded that Goa Governor Mridula Sinha, like her Karnataka counterpart, should invite the single largest party in the state assembly that is Congress to form the government in the state.

"In 2017, we won 17 seats and were the single largest party and continue to be so, but the Governor chose to invite the BJP which had just 13 seats. In Karnataka, Governor invited BJP to form the government on the premise that they are the single largest party. Therefore, the Goa Governor too should invite us to form government because we are ready to prove our strength on the floor of the house," Goa Congress spokesperson Yatish Naik said at a press conference here.

Naik also said that the state has been without a leader for over two months now, given that Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has been away from work due to poor health.

"Anyway for the last two months, this is a headless government. Chief Minister is nowhere to be seen, the state is leaderless, and moving in a directionless fashion. Before he went, he constituted a Cabinet Advisory Committee (CAC) which is unheard of. There are three ministers in it and we have seen that it has been rendered to be a pure farce," he said.

He added that there have been no cabinet meetings and no decisions are being taken in Goa as the CAC is not a substitute to the Chief Minister.

In light of this situation as well as the decision of the Karnataka Governor to invite the single largest party to form government in the state, the Congress leader reiterated, "The Congress party in Goa demands that the Governor must forthwith dismantle and dismiss this undemocratically installed state government, which is for the moment headless for the last two months and call us as the single largest party of the house and give us the opportunity to prove our strength."

He announced that the Congress was ready to prove their strength in seven days, and had already sought an appointment with the Governor.

In the letter, the leader of opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar urged the Governor to meet with the party members on Friday "as early as possible but not later than 10.00 am", in order to submit a memorandum.

According to sources, Congress Goa in-charge Chella Kumar will soon be leaving for Goa with other party leaders for a meeting with the Governor.

"If necessary Congress can parade its MLAs also at Governor house," sources said.

Following the results of Karntataka Assembly elections, Governor Vajubhai R. Vala on May 16 invited BJP's BS Yeddyurappa to form the government after it emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats. Along with one independent MLA, the BJP has staked the claim at forming the government.

However, they are still short of the halfway mark of 112 by seven MLAs and have been given 15 days to prove their majority in the Karnataka assembly.

The Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance, on the other hand, has a majority with 115 MLAs.

The Karnataka Governor's decision to invite BJP to form government in the state has caused uproar among the opposition parties who were not invited to form government in their respective states despite being the single largest party.