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Goa Congress seeks disqualification of Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat amid defection talks
Goa Congress crisis: Pradesh Congress Committee president Amit Patkar said, "We are moving a disqualification against our two senior leaders.”
The Goa Congress on Monday said it was seeking disqualification of two of its leaders – Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat – from the Assembly over allegations that the two senior functionaries were trying to engineer a defection in the opposition camp for a switchover to the BJP.
Petitions were filed with Goa Assembly speaker Ramesh Tawadkar in this regard, state Congress committee president Amit Patkar said.
“We are moving a disqualification petition against our two senior leaders 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 said.
The development came hours after five Congress MLAs who became unreachable a day ago attended the Assembly proceedings on the first day of the monsoon session, adding there was "nothing wrong" in the opposition party.
A day ago, the party removed Lobo as the leader of Opposition in the Assembly in the wake of reports that some of the Congrss were switching over to the ruling camp.
The Congress has a total of 11 MLAs in the coastal state of whom Michael Lobo, Digambar Kamat, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo had gone incommunicado.
Congress' state in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao said "Lobo and Kamat were hatching a conspiracy by hobnobbing with the BJP to engineer a split in the party."
In a late-night development, it was informed that Sonia Gandhi had rushed MP Mukul Wasnik to look into the crisis in the state.
(With inputs from age)
