PANJIM: Fearing the possibility of cross-voting, the Congress shifted five of the 11 MLAs to an unknown destination in view of the Presidential election scheduled on Monday.
Five MLAs Sankalp Amonkar, Carlos Alvares Ferreira, Yuri Alemao, Rudolf Fernandes, and Altone D’Costa were moved to an unknown destination by Congress’s High Command immediately after the Assembly was adjourned on Friday.
On Saturday, the news went viral that Congress has shifted its five MLAs to Chennai. However, the Congress sources strongly denied that they are in Chennai and claimed that the MLAs have gone to an unknown destination in a neighbouring State. “They may be at Karwar or Anmod but definitely not in Chennai,” opined Congress president Girish Chodankar.
Five party MLAs Aleixo Sequeira, Rajesh Faldessai, Kedar Naik, Delilah Lobo and Michael Lobo have not joined the five MLAs. Veteran Digambar Kamat too has not travelled anywhere.
Calangute MLA Michael Lobo returned Goa from Mumbai on Sat-urday. He said he had been to Mumbai for his personal business visit.
“There should be no confusion because I have been to Mumbai on a purely personal business visit,” Lobo told media persons after his arrival at the Dabolim airport.
Lobo claimed that all Congress MLAs were his colleagues and if five of them were in Chennai, then they might have gone for a meeting and that he was unaware of it. He also denied a split in the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) or differences of opinion be-tween CLP members.
The MLAs will return to Goa on Monday before the commencement of the election process of the new President of India.
They will attend the ongoing Monsoon Session of the Goa Assembly.
With one unsuccessful coup by Congress MLAs last week and ru-mours still floating about some Congress MLAs being still in touch with the ruling BJP, Congress does not seem to be ready to leave anything to chance.
Reacting to the disqualification filed against him before the Speak-er, Lobo claimed that there was no ground at all for his disqualifica-tion and that there might have been some misunderstanding.
