With the opposition Congress in furore in Goa after five legislators went incommunicado ahead of assembly session, former Goa party chief Girish Chudankar said that he was happy that a majority of party legislators refused to fall prey to financial inducements. "Rs 40 crore per MLA was the money arranged through miners and industrialists. Some MLAs are not reachable. But, we are happy that a majority of legislators haven't fallen prey [to the financial inducements]," Chudankar told THE WEEK.
As of Monday morning, five of the total 11 Congress MLAs, in the 40-member Goa Assembly, were with the party, while five others remained out of reach. Another MLA Aleixo Sequeira was at home and pledged his support to the party. The state Congress reportedly faced an embarrassing situation on Sunday when five of its MLAs—Michael Lobo, Digambar Kamat, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo—went incommunicado.
The Congress subsequently removed Lobo from the post of leader of opposition in the Goa Assembly, the party's state desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao announced late Sunday evening. "Lobo and Kamat were hatching a conspiracy by hobnobbing with the BJP to engineer a split in the Congress," Rao alleged. Therefore, the party has decided to remove Lobo from the post of the Leader of Opposition. Action will be taken against both Lobo and Kamat, he said.
The ruling BJP in Goa has 20 MLAs, and the Pramod Sawant government also enjoys the support of five other legislators—two from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three Independents. The Congress had won 11 seats in the Assembly polls held in February this year. The Goa Foward Party (GFP) and Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) had won one seat each, while the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) bagged two seats.
-Inputs from agencies
