PANAJI: Amidst fear of desertions, Congress today sent party general secretary and Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik to Goa to oversee the latest political developments in the state.
Months after defeat in the assembly polls earlier this year, the Congress on Sunday once again faced another crisis as former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat and Leader of Opposition in the assembly Michael Lobo did not attend the party’s important meeting.
The Congress soon swung into action and dismissed Lobo as the Leader of the Opposition in the Goa assembly for allegedly trying to engineer defections with the ruling BJP.
Congress Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao alleged that a “conspiracy” was hatched by some Congress leaders with the BJP to weaken the party and “engineer defections”. “This conspiracy was led by two of our leaders – Lobo and Kamat,” he said during a press meet.
Kamat was also a Chief Ministerial candidate of the Congress in the assembly elections held earlier this year.
“Lobo has been removed from the position of Leader of Opposition of Goa and a new leader will be elected,” Rao said.
He also asserted that whatever action has to be taken by law against this kind of defection and anti-party work, will follow.
The Congress has 11 MLAs in the 40-member Goa Assembly. There are rumours that around 7-8 Congress MLAs may cross over to the ruling BJP as a few legislators skipped a crucial party meeting on Sunday.
The Congress leader further said that only time will tell how many people will stay or move.
“Five of our MLAs are here, and we are in touch with some more MLAs and they shall be along with us,” the Congress leader said.
Rao also accused Kamat and Lobo of internal sabotage and “working in total coordination with BJP.”
“Both these people had been working in total coordination with BJP. Kamat did it to safeguard himself because so many cases are against him while Lobo did it for the sake of power and position. BJP wants to finish the opposition,” he alleged.
Further alleging that BJP was trying for a two-third split to see that a minimum of eight Congress MLAs leave the party, Rao said, “Many of our people have been offered huge amounts of money. I’m shocked at the amount offered. But our six MLAs stood firm, I’m proud of them.”
The Congress action comes on the eve of the two-week monsoon session of the assembly that is starting on Monday.