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Congress to announce new Goa Opposition leader in September: State party chief
Goa Congress president Amit Patkar said that a new Opposition leader will be announced after the visit of AICC general secretary Mukul Wasnik to the state
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The Congress will announce a new leader of Opposition in Goa to succeed rebel leader Michael Lobo in the second week of September, state Congress president Amit Patkar said on Tuesday after returning from Delhi, where he took part in deliberation over the party’s Bharat Jodo campaign.
Patkar said the name of the new Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader will be decided after the visit of All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Mukul Wasnik to the state, however, unlike last time the new Opposition leader will be announced from Goa and not Delhi.
“Mukul Wasnik will be visiting Goa on the 12th of September and the announcement will be made after he has met the MLAs of the party. Prior to that AICC observer for Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao will be visiting the state and hold one to one meetings with the Congress MLAs from September 3rd onwards,” Patkar said.
The Congress earlier said that they were deposing Lobo of the post of leader of Opposition in the wake of a move by a section of the party MLAs to jump ship to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). In early July, after weeks of downplaying the speculation, the Congress publicly accused two of its leaders, Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo, of colluding with the BJP to split the party. The party also moved a disqualification petition against the duo while announcing that Lobo would no longer be the leader of Opposition.
Lobo subsequently ought to downplay the move saying that it was his request that he be relieved of the charge. However, for more than two months since then, the party failed to announce who would replace Lobo even though speculation was mounting that a lack of consensus among the MLAs would further divide the party.
The Congress was able to stymie a move by its MLAs by taking five of them to a secure location thereby ensuring that the breakaway group couldn’t get the required eight MLAs to be able to avoid earning disqualification under the anti-defection law.
