Ahead of the confidence vote sought by the Pratapsinh Rane government in the Goa [Images] assembly, Speaker Vishwas Satarkar on Monday disqualified an Independent legislator, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, thus reducing the strength of the Congress-led government to 17.

However, the action is not going to have any impact as the arithmetic still favours the Congress, which has 17 MLAs in a House of 34. The Bharatiya Janata Party has 16.

The disqualification was made on the basis of a petition filed by BJP MLA Sadanand Shet stating that Rodrigues could not withdraw support to the Manohar Parrikar [Images] government nor could qualify as an Independent MLA because he had joined the BJP in 2002.

They also presented documentary evidence in support of their claim.

Rodrigue's lawyer said they had requested for suspension of the order, which was rejected.

Earlier, the Speaker accepted the resignation of BJP MLA Digambar Kamat.