Goa Cong seeks disqualification of 2 MLAs amid defection talks

The Congress on Monday filed petitions with the Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar seeking disqualification of its MLAs Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat.

The Congress has accused the two MLAs of hobnobbing with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to bring about a split in the opposition party.

Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Amit Patkar said disqualification petitions have been filed against Lobo and Kamat, adding that the Speaker had been informed about the party's decision to remove Lobo as Leader of Opposition in the assembly.

"Disqualification petitions have been filed against both the MLAs as they have voluntarily given up membership of the party. There is a Supreme Court judgment which states that any anti-party activity amounts to giving up of the membership of the party." Patkar claimed.

He said the move by the BJP to split the Congress Legislative Party had failed as it could not muster the required numbers of legislators needed to do so without attracting anti-defection law provisions.

"The BJP wanted to repeat what they have done in Maharashtra through money and muscle power. We ensured on Sunday that the defection in our party stops," Patkar said.

The BJP is resorting to such tactics as it does not want any opposition in the states where they are ruling, Patkar alleged.

Talking to reporters on Monday, Lobo claimed there was nothing wrong in the party.

“There is nothing wrong. I don't know what is the problem. All Congress MLAs were together. We went to South Goa for a meeting on Sunday. They (Congress leaders) again wanted to have another press conference which was not required, so we did not attend it,” said Lobo, whose wife Delialah is also a Congress MLA.

Lobo said they won the state election on the Congress's ticket and they stand with the party.

On replacing him as the leader of opposition, Lobo said he had told the party that he was not interested to continue as the LoP.

Former chief minister Digambar Kamat and his Congress colleague Rajesh Faldesai also said they were with the party.

The two Congress MLAs said they were not in the party office on Sunday due to personal commitments.

Talking to reporters outside the assembly complex, Kamat said he was very much with the Congress.

“I had met Dinesh Gundu Rao on Saturday. I told him that I am hurt because of the humiliation that I faced in the party,” the former CM said, adding that rumours of him joining the BJP were floating since 2017.

“I stayed with the Congress. I led the party from front during the assembly election (earlier this year), but after the polls, I was not given the post of leader of opposition,” Kamat said.

MLA Rajesh Faldesai also said he was with the party and had informed Goa Congress chief Amit Patkar about his absence (from the party office on Sunday), as he was at home due to personal reasons.

Faldesai said rumours were being spread that he met Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Sunday.

Before the commencement of the assembly session, a senior Congress leader said they had moved five other MLAs, who were with the party, to an undisclosed location, to avoid a 'split' in the outfit and that they will attend the session.