Crisis hits Goa Cong, 6 of its 11 MLAs willing to join BJP

Panaji: In a vertical split, Congress has been left holding on to just five of its 11 MLAs in the 40-member Goa assembly within four months of BJP retaining the reins of government.
After a day-long drama on Sunday, the merger of the dissident Congress camp with BJP fizzled out as the breakaway group, led by former chief minister Digambar Kamat, failed to garner the support of the stipulated two-third of the party's legislative strength, which works out to eight MLAs. Till late in the night, it wasn’t clear whether the Kamat group’s strength would swell.
Congress, which had made its candidates sign an affidavit and take oath before a temple deity and a Catholic cross that they would not defect to BJP after getting elected, cracked the whip immediately. The party's Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao held a presser to announce the removal of Michael Lobo, part of the Kamat group, from the post of leader of the opposition.
Congress convened its legislature party meeting of five members—Mormugao MLA and deputy CLP leader Sankalp Amonkar, Cuncolim MLA Yuri Alemao, Santa Cruz MLA Rudolf Fernandes, Aldona MLA Carlos Ferreira and Quepem MLA Altone D’Costa—past midnight, but there was no unanimity about Lobo’s successor. Party state president Amit Patkar said the views of the CLP would be conveyed to AICC and the new leader would be elected before the two-week monsoon session begins at 11.30am on Monday.
Soon after the meeting, the five MLAs were whisked off by Congress functionaries to an undisclosed location.
Congress president rushed Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik to Goa to firefight the crisis.
Exactly three years ago, on July 10, the Congress legislature party had split, with the then opposition leader Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar leading a 10-member group and later joining BJP.
As speculation raged about the new batch of dissident Congress MLAs merging the legislature wing with BJP, Rao held a series of meetings over the weekend.
Congress blamed Kamat and Lobo for engineering the split.
On Sunday morning, Rao convened a meeting of all Congress MLAs in Margao, but Kamat stayed away. Besides Kamat and Lobo, the breakaway group includes Saligao MLA Kedar Naik, Siolim MLA and Lobo’s wife Delilah Lobo, Nuvem MLA Alexio Sequeira and Cumbharjua legislator Rajesh Phaldessai.
On why he didn’t attend the meeting, Kamat said, “I was not called for the meeting in Margao. Dinesh Gundu Rao called me last night and I told him that I am “retired hurt” and that I wouldn’t like to take any more responsibilities.”
Rao, who was rushed to the state on Saturday, said, “These two (Kamat and Lobo) have been working in coordination with the BJP to weaken Congress and finish Congress so that there is nobody to stop BJP’s authoritarian regime in the country.”
Terming it “betrayal for personal gain”, he said the party would initiate whatever action was possible against the two MLAs.
Rao said Kamat, who gained so much from Congress, was “engaging in cheap, dirty politics”. He described Lobo as “a traitor and a backstabber”.
“Betrayal is being engineered by Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat for personal gain. Kamat did it to safeguard his own skin as so many cases are lodged against him. Lobo did it for the sake of power and position. The BJP is using money power and institution power to finish the opposition,” Rao said.
“BJP was trying for a two-third split... I am shocked at the amount of money being offered to our MLAs,” he said.
Patkar blamed BJP for trying to split Congress. “The party is not splitting. If someone wants to split, they have to resign and re-contest and they must introspect and think about what they will tell their voters,” he said.
After the party leadership on Sunday initially put up a brave front in the face of rebellion by a splinter group within Congress denying any such moves, former party president Girish Chodankar, in one of the first clear signs that the party was fighting to stave off a defection, alleged that BJP through “some mine owners and coal mafia” were pressuring the Congress MLAs to make the switch to BJP.
Emerging from a meeting of MLAs with the party leadership held at a hotel in Margao, Chodankar alleged that its MLAs were being offered Rs 30-40 crore each to hop over to BJP.
Union minister Bhupender Yadav of BJP had reached Goa in the morning to oversee the merger. However, CM Pramod Sawant said he had come to discuss work related to his portfolios.