Panaji, Jan 8 (PTI) The Opposition MLAs in Goa on Monday threatened to boycott the upcoming budget session of the legislative assembly if the Speaker did not follow the convention of allowing one question from the ruling party followed by one from the Opposition.

The six-day budget session of the Goa legislative assembly will begin on February 2.

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Legislators from the opposition parties, including the Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP), held a meeting at Porvorim during the day.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao said the legislature department has decided to break the old convention of allowing one question from the ruling followed by one from the Opposition during Question Hour.

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"We can see that the legislature department has allowed mixed (randomly selected) questions. Because of this, the Opposition will not get a proper opportunity to discuss their questions on the floor of the House," Alemao said.

He further said Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar should immediately reinstate the old convention of allowing questions else, "the opposition parties have unanimously decided to boycott the session".

GFP chief Vijai Sardesai said the ruling members outnumbered the Opposition in the assembly.

He pointed out that apart from the Speaker and cabinet ministers, 20 MLAs from the BJP and its alliance partners can table the questions.

"In such circumstances, the probability of getting discussion for our questions in the House is less," Sardesai said.

Meanwhile, Speaker Tawadkar said he chose to go with the process of random selection of questions after ruling MLAs asked for the same.

In the past, questions were chosen randomly, but sometimes there was a practice of giving equal opportunity, he said.

"The Opposition MLAs are afraid that they may not get the chance to ask questions as their number is less. Let them approach me with their grievance, and I will hear them out," the Speaker said.

The 40-member Goa assembly has seven MLAs in the Opposition, including three from Congress, two from the AAP and one each from GFP and RGP.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)