Goa Assembly: Congress MLAs protest Guv's address; stage walkout

Panaji: 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," 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 said.

All other Congress legislators also stood up in protest to join 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 saffron party cobbled up an alliance with regional forces and independents to form the government under Manohar Parrikar.