New Delhi: Five Goa Congress MLAs, who went incommunicado on 10 July; attended the state Assembly proceedings on the first day of the monsoon session on Monday, and claimed there was “nothing wrong” in the opposition party.
Ahead of the Assembly session, Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on said he had not received any intimation about a ‘split’ in the state Congress Legislature Party.
But the Congress in Goa wants two of its 11 MLAs — Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo — disqualified under the anti-defection law, and has petitioned the Speaker of the assembly for it, NDTV reported.
This came hours after Mr Kamat, a former CM, said he was “shocked and stunned” as the Congress’s state in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao accused him and Mr Lobo of trying to divide the party in “total coordination” with the ruling BJP.
Out of the total 11 Congress MLAs in the state, five — Michael Lobo, Digambar Kamat, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo — had gone incommunicado, a senior party leader said on 10 July.
The Congress subsequently removed Lobo from the post of Leader of Opposition in the 40-member state Assembly.
Congress’s Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao had alleged that “Lobo and Kamat were hatching a conspiracy by hobnobbing with the BJP to engineer a split in the Congress.” 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.
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.
Ahead of the Assembly session today morning, Congress also moved five of its MLAs to an undisclosed location.
A senior Congress leader confirmed that they have moved the five MLAs, who are with the party, to an undisclosed location to avoid further ‘split’ in the outfit.
The party will also announce the name of its new leader of opposition before the commencement of the Assembly session, according to Goa Congress chief Amit Patkar.
Another MLA Aleixo Sequeira was at home and pledged his support to the party.