BJP MLA Ganesh Gaonkar elected Goa assembly speaker

Panaji: BJP legislator Ganesh Gaonkar was on Thursday elected speaker of the Goa legislative assembly after securing a majority vote during a special session of the House.

Governor P Ashok Gajapathi Raju summoned the special session to elect the new speaker, as the post fell vacant last month due to the resignation of Ramesh Tawadkar, who was inducted into the Pramod Sawant-led state cabinet.

Gaonkar polled 32 votes against his rival Congress candidate Altone D'Costa, who was supported by only seven MLAs.

Deputy Speaker Joshua D'Souza, who chaired the House proceedings, declared 66-year-old Gaonkar as the next speaker of the legislative Assembly.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao later escorted the newly elected speaker to the Chair and congratulated him.

The BJP, which has 28 legislators in the 40-member House, enjoys the support of the two MLAs of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and three Independents.

The Opposition comprises three MLAs of the Congress, two of the Aam Aadmi Party and one each from the Goa Forward Party and Revolutionary Goans Party.

It had fielded Quepem MLA D'Costa as its joint candidate for the speaker's election.

This is the second time during the current Sawant-led state government that Gaonkar has occupied the speaker's chair.

The two-term legislator was earlier nominated as a pro-tem speaker after the BJP won the 2022 Goa assembly polls. Gaonkar had then administered the oath to all MLAs in the House.

The tribal leader was elected on a BJP ticket for the first time in 2012 from Sanvordem constituency, but was defeated by his rival Deepak Pauskar of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party in the 2017 polls from the same constituency.

Gaonkar made a comeback in the 2022 polls from Sanvordem constituency on the BJP ticket.

In the current tenure, Gaonkar is on the House committee constituted to study the issue of diversion of the Mhadei river by neighbouring Karnataka.