Panaji, Jul 25 (IANS): Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA Isidore Fernandes was elected unopposed as the Deputy Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
Speaker Rajesh Patnekar made the formal announcement earlier today, after no other MLA filed his nomination for the election during the ongoing Monsoon Session.
The election of the Deputy Speaker was necessitated after the previous Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo was appointed as a minister in Chief Minister Pramod Sawant's cabinet earlier this month.
Fernandes is one of the 10 MLAs who quit the Congress and joined the BJP on July 10. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant-led government is currently supported by 27 MLAs of the BJP, plus two Independents and one MLA from the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) in the 40-member state Legislative Assembly.