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Most Goa leaders favour polls before monsoon

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

Several Goa leaders feel that the state assembly polls have to be conducted before June second week, when monsoon hits this tiny coastal state.

Constitutional experts say the assembly elections cannot wait till September as President's rule in the state ends on August 11. However, the Election Commission is reportedly keen on holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and nine state assemblies including Goa in September.

Though the President is empowered to issue a notification extending central rule, it needs to be ratified by the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha within 60 days -- by October 11 in the case of Goa. There is no reason why such a ratification cannot be given by the 13th Lok Sabha if the polls are held in September. However, any disruption in the poll schedule due to the monsoons may create a constitutional crisis in the state.

The Goa assembly elections had been tentatively scheduled for May-end, and the revised state electoral rolls would be published today.

In case a simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly poll is held in the state, several leaders feel that the Bharatiya Janata Party may have an edge.

Former Union law minister and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party leader Ramakant Khalap felt the BJP ''would be in better position as the Congress and the other Opposition parties have to cut a sorry figure due to their failure to form an alternative government at the Centre''.

Goa Congress unit chief Luizinho Faleiro, however, disagreed. "The electorate favours the Congress, as evident from the November 1998 assembly elections.'' But he declined to comment on how his party proposes to reverse the dwindling Congress fortunes since 1994.

Most political parties in the state, including the Congress, BJP and MGP, have favoured simultaneous Lok Sabha and assembly elections by June first week.

The only exception is former chief minister Wilfred de Souza, leader of the Goa Rajiv Congress. He does not mind polls during the monsoon, as was held after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's assassination.

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