Election for Goa Speaker on March 19

PANAJI: Election for the post of Speaker of the newly-elected Goa Legislative Assembly would be held on March 19, when the budget session of the house will start, a senior official said today.

The BJP-led group of MLAs has already nominated Mahadev Naik as pro-tem speaker, who would conduct the proceedings till the full-time speaker is elected.

Party sources said that BJP MLAs Rajendra Arlekar or Vishnu Surya Wagh could be candidates for the Speaker's post.

Legislature secretary N B Subhedar said no nominations had been received so far. "The nominations can be accepted even on March 18," he said.

Governor K Sankaranarayanan would address the Assembly on March 20. Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will present the budget on 21st, following which there will be vote on account for four months.

The Assembly would be summoned again in July to discuss the budget.

The election for the post of Deputy Speaker would be held on March 21.

BJP and its allies have a clear majority in the 40-member house.