MLA Delilah Lobo emerged as the leading vote-getter among candidates ranked behind the party leaders in Goa’s legislative arithmetic, even as the Opposition conceded it lacked the numbers to win the Deputy Speaker election in July 2022. Fielded as the joint Opposition candidate for Deputy Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, Lobo — the party’s only woman legislator in the state — secured 12 of the 15 votes from the Opposition camp during Friday’s election, while BJP MLA Joshua D’Souza was elected with 24 votes. Two AAP MLAs and the Revolutionary Goans Party MLA abstained from voting, disapproving of Lobo’s nomination by the Opposition, which meant she finished well ahead of other non-BJP candidates despite the loss.
The contest took place against a backdrop of political tension just days after the Congress had accused senior legislators Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo, Delilah’s husband, of allegedly engineering the defection of at least eight of the party’s 11 MLAs to the BJP. Although that merger did not materialize, the episode left the Congress wary and the Opposition fragmented. Congress MLA Carlose Alvares Ferreira admitted ahead of the vote that the opposition camp did not have sufficient strength to win the Deputy Speaker post, but maintained that “anything can happen during voting”.
Lobo’s candidacy was announced after a meeting of Congress MLAs, with Michael Lobo telling reporters it was a unanimous choice. The Goa Forward Party and AAP later said they would support her, making her the de facto face of the Opposition bloc in the House that day. In the 40-member Assembly, the ruling BJP held 20 MLAs and enjoyed the support of five others from the MGP and Independents, giving D’Souza an expected majority of 25 votes.
Despite the defeat, Lobo’s 12-vote tally placed her at the top of the Opposition count and underscored her individual standing within the legislature following the Congress’s turbulent month. The post of Deputy Speaker had been vacant since Subhash Faldesai resigned and was inducted into the Cabinet in April, and the election was held on the final day of the Assembly’s monsoon session.
