PANJIM: Two former Congress MLAs Clafasio Dias and Wilfred D’Sa, who joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) along with eight others, have filed a counter affidavit in the Supreme Court claiming that the Congress Party does not exist in Goa and that the petitioner Girish Chodankar had no locus standi to file the case.
The counter affidavit filed by the duo states, “Indian National Congress has ceased to exist and has merged in the BJP and therefore the remaining five MLAs are a group of independents MLAs, who are allowed to continue as Members of Legislative Assembly. The Congress being merged with the BJP and the remaining five MLAs being independent MLAs the petitioner has no locus standi to file the present petition in his capacity as president of the party and hence the petition is liable to be dismissed.”
Chodankar has filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court seeking disqualification of 10 rebel Congress MLAs who joined BJP in July 2019.
On February 11, the apex court posted the matter for further hearing in the first week of March after Solicitor General of India Tushar Mehta told the court that the Goa Assembly Speaker has listed disqualification petitions filed before him for disposal on February 26.
Congress president Girish Chodankar is learnt to have obtained information from Election Commission of India (EC), New Delhi under RTI Act, which states that Congress Party is a recognised national party and that the Election Commission has no information/communication whether Congress Legislative Party in the Goa Assembly has been merged with BJP.
