Congress cites SC verdict on Bihar to contest Goa guv’s decision

NEW DELHI: The Congress, which won 17 seats in the 40-member Goa assembly, on Monday night moved the Supreme Court challenging governor Mridula Sinha ’s decision to invite the 13-MLA BJP, led by Manohar Parrikar , to form government, claiming that it violated the “established constitutional practice” of inviting the single-largest party in a hung Assembly.Chief Justice J S Khehar agreed to set up a special bench on Tuesday for an urgent hearing as the court is closed for a week for Holi. With the oath-taking ceremony scheduled for March 14 , Parrikar may have to wait for the SC hearing before taking over as CM.Congress’s legal brains trust, including senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, drafted the petition which was filed by the leader of Congress Legislature Party in Goa, Chandrakant Kavlekar, through advocates Devadatt Kamat and Gautam Talukdar.Congress in its petition on Monday night against the Goa governor’s invitation to invite the BJP to form government pointed out that a Constitution bench of the SC had severely censured Bihar governor Buta Singh for recommending that the assembly— then in suspended animation— be dissolved without giving the Nitish Kumar-led JD(U)-BJP alliance, which had the largest tally, an opportunity to prove its majority on the floor of the house.Its legislature party chief Chandrakant Kavlekar also recalled that the Sarkaria Commission on Centre-State relations in a federal structure had recommended that the single largest party must get the invitation to form government in order to eliminate political maneuvering by the Centre through the governor.“BJP, which has only 13 MLAs in the assembly, in order to get around the mandate of the people which has thrown it out of power, has, using its political clout at the Centre, sought to claim that it has the requisite majority with the purported help of certain smaller powers,” he said.“As per well-established constitutional norms and conventions, the single-largest party ought to have been given an opportunity to form government and prove its majority.However, the governor vide her decision on the night of March 12 has appointed Manohar Parrikar as the CM and has invited the BJP to form the government and scheduled oath taking ceremony is on March 14,” he said.“The entire objective of this hasty late-night political maneuvering by the powers that-be is to defeat the mandate of the people and to somehow grab power by misusing the office of the governor,” Kavlekar added terming the governor’s decision to appoint Parrikar as chief minister as unconstitutional.