Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator Joshua De Souza was on Friday elected as the Deputy Speaker of Goa Legislative Assembly as he defeated Congress candidate Delialah Lobo by 12 votes.
The election for the post was held on the last day of the monsoon session of the assembly, which had commenced last week.
The Congress had fielded Lobo - its only woman legislator in the state - against De Souza of the ruling party.
While De Souza polled 24 votes, Lobo bagged 12 votes - 11 of the Congress and one of the Goa Forward Party (GFP).
De Souza, 33, represents the Mapusa assembly constituency in North Goa. He was first elected as the MLA in 2019 following the death of his father, Francis De Souza, who was then a minister in the state cabinet.
Two MLAs of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the lone MLA of the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) - both belonging to the opposition benches - abstained from voting. AAP legislators had earlier in the day said that they had no idea whom the opposition has fielded as its candidate for the post.
Before the election, the Congress had admitted that the opposition camp does not have enough strength to win the post, but also maintained that "anything can happen during voting".
Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar and others congratulated De Souza on his win.
In the 40-member Goa Assembly, the ruling BJP has 20 MLAs, and the government led by it enjoys the support of five others - two from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independents.
The Congress had won 11 seats in the assembly polls held in February this year. The GFP and the RGP had won one seat each, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP had bagged two seats.
Talking to reporters earlier in the day, AAP MLAs Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva said they had no idea who was fighting the election for the post from the opposition side and therefore they would abstain from voting.
"No one has contacted us to seek our support. We don't know who is contesting the election from opposition camp," Viegas said.
