Congress filed disqualification petition against former Goa CM Digambar Kamat and former leader of the opposition Michael Lobo, a day after MLAs led by Kamat failed to get the support of two-thirds of the party’s legislative strength needed to join BJP.
In a petition filed before Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, Congress accused Kamat and Lobo of working with BJP to break away two-thirds of its MLAs. “We have filed a disqualification petition against our two senior leaders because they have voluntarily given up their membership of the party.
Congress state president Amit Patkar said that there is a Supreme Court judgment that says any anti-party activity amounts to voluntarily giving up membership of the party”. He said that there was a vertical split among Congress MLAs but said Kamat and Lobo could not manage the numbers. “We have managed to block the defections. For the first time the Congress party has taken a proactive decision to prevent defections. We want a strong message to go out because the voter is suffering”.
Although, all congress MLAs attended the House on the first day of the two-week monsoon session of the assembly and also claimed that they were part of Congress. Exactly three years ago, on July 10, the Congress legislature party had split, with the then opposition leader Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar leading a 10-member group and later joining BJP. Congress blamed Kamat and Lobo for the split. Besides Kamat and Lobo, the breakaway group includes Saligao MLA Kedar Naik, Siolim MLA and Lobo’s wife Delilah Lobo, Nuvem MLA Alexio Sequeira and Cumbharjua legislator Rajesh Phaldessai.
