MARGAO: Amidst defection move, the Congress on Monday filed a disqualification petition against two of its MLAs- Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo, accusing them of trying to engineer a defection in the Opposition camp by hobnobbing with the ruling BJP.
The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Amit Patkar said the disqualification petition under the anti-defection law has been filed against Kamat and Lobo with the Goa Legislative Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar.
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However, Tawadkar said that he has not received any disqualification notice from the Congress party. “We have filed a disqualification petition against the two 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 on Sunday during a crucial party meeting, attended the Assembly proceedings on the first day of the Monsoon Session, on Monday. The move also comes at a time when both Lobo and Kamat declared that they were still very much with the Congress. Patkar said that the move by the BJP to split the Congress Legislative Party failed as it could not muster the required 2/3 numbers. “There was a definite move to split the CLP, but they failed to do so,” he said. The GPCC president said the BJP is resorting to such tactics as it does not want any Opposition in the States where they are ruling.
Patkar then met the Speaker and urged him to change the seating in the assembly since Lobo had been removed as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party.
