A. OVERVIEW

1. This Writ Petition was admitted on 20th June 2017. The order issuing Rule sets out in brief the rival submissions. Paragraphs 7 and 8 say that various aspects, including that of jurisdiction, would have to be examined. The order notes that at that time there was no Affidavit in Reply, and specifically says its observations are prima facie and tentative. Yet, there being arguable issues, the Court issued Rule. One of us (Ms Nutan D Sardessai J) was a member of the Bench that admitted the petition.

2. The pleadings are now complete. We have had the benefit of hearing Mr Desai for the Petitioners, Mr Doctor for Respondent No.6 and Mr Lawande, the learned Advocate-General for Respondent No.1. The following summary may lend perspective to the more detailed consideration that follows. We will omit the dates for the purposes of this summary, and come back to them later.

2.1 Vishwajit Rane, Respondent No. 6 (“Rane”; “Vishwajit”), was elected to the Goa Legislative Assembly (“Assembly”) on an Indian National Congress (“Congress”) ticket in early 2017. The Congress secured 17 seats, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (“BJP”) won 13 seats. The latter was invited to form the