Two months later, rumours float yet again of 11 Congress MLAs likely joining the ruling BJP

@the_news_21

Mumbai: Barely two months after rumours of a purported split in the Goa Congress surfaced on July 10, rumours are yet again afloat of 11 Congress MLAs likely to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). According to sources, the MLAs, who include former chief minister Digambar Kamat, Michael Lobo, his wife Delilah Lobo, Rajesh Faldessai, Kedar Naik, Sankalp Amonkar, Aleixo Sequeira and Rodolfo Fernandes are all likely to join the BJP and have reached the Goa Legislative Assembly to apparently submit their resignation letters.

It may be recalled that on July 10 earlier this year, rumours of a split within the Congress surfaced after Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao said that a major split within the party was being engineered by its senior leaders Michael Lobo and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat in coordination with the ruling BJP.

All eight Congress MLAs meet Goa CM Pramod Sawant in the latter’s chamber. In 2019, the Congress had been similarly split when 10 of its 17 MLAs had defected en masse to the BJP.

The list of Congress MLAs likely to join the ruling BJP include:

Former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat, Michael Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldessai, Alexio Sequeira, Sankalp Amonkar, Rodolfo Fernandes among others. The other remaining Congress MLAs include: Carlos Alvares Ferriera, Alemao Yuri and Altone D’Costa.

Back in July earlier this year, Congress Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao had accused Michael Lobo and former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat of trying to engineer a split in the party with the support of the ruling BJP.

The Congress then had removed Michael Lobo, the MLA from Calangute, from his post of Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader while Digambar Kamat was to be probed for alleged anti-party activities by hobnobbing with the BJP.  

The BJP led by Goa Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, along with the support of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Independents, already have a comfortable majority of 25 out of the 40 Assembly seats in the House, The BJP has a strength of 20 MLAs in the unicameral legislature.