In a recent bother for the opposition Congress in Goa, the celebration on Sunday stated 5 of its 11 MLAs within the state have gone “incommunicado”, and accused two of those legislators – Michael Lobo and former chief minister Digambar Kamat – of “conspiring” and “hobnobbing with the ruling BJP to engineer a split” within the grand previous celebration’s legislative wing.
The celebration additionally eliminated Lobo from the submit of Leader of Opposition within the state Assembly, which has 40 members. The announcement concerning the legislators going incommunicado and the sacking of Lobo from the submit was made by the celebration’s Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao right here late Sunday night, on the eve of the meeting session. The improvement comes amid hypothesis that some Congress MLAs might cross over to the saffron celebration. Exactly three years in the past on today, a bunch of 10 MLAs from the Congress had left the celebration and converted to the BJP.
The improvement additionally comes shut on the heels of the political turmoil in neighbouring Maharashtra, the place the ruling Shiv Sena cut up following a riot by senior chief Eknath Shinde, who grew to become the chief minister after Uddhav Thackeray resigned from the highest submit within the final week of June. Shinde and his supporting MLAs had gone “incommunicado” on June 20-21 earlier than shifting to Surat after which to Guwahati. Addressing a press convention right here, Rao stated, “Five Congress MLAs – Michael Lobo, Digambar Kamat, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo – have gone incommunicado.” However, 5 different legislators – Altone D’Costa, Sankalp Amonkar, Yuri Alemao, Carlose Alvares Ferreira, Rudolf Fernandes – are with the celebration, he stated. These 5 MLAs had been even current on the press convention addressed by Rao. “Sixth MLA, Aleixo Sequeira, is in touch with the Congress leaders and is very much with the party,” he stated. “Lobo and Kamat were hatching a conspiracy by hobnobbing with BJP to engineer a split in the Congress. Therefore, the party has decided to remove Lobo from the post of the Leader of Opposition. Action will be taken against both Lobo and Kamat,” Rao alleged.
In the Pramod Sawant-led dispensation, the ruling BJP has 20 MLAs, and the federal government additionally enjoys the help of 5 others – two from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independents. The grand previous celebration had received 11 seats within the meeting polls held in February this yr. The Goa Foward Party (GFP) and Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) had received one seat every, whereas the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) had bagged two seats. Rao stated that if the 5 MLAs defect, they must face elections once more because the group doesn’t benefit from the two-thirds majority of the celebration’s legislative wing. He recalled that earlier than the meeting polls, all of the Congress candidates had taken a vow earlier than God that they’d not defect to every other celebration in the event that they get elected. “These MLAs have broken that vow,” Rao stated
Source: www.financialexpress.com”