Goa: Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo say still with Congress, party to seek their disqualification

Patkar said that indulging in anti-party activities was tantamount to giving up one’s membership in the party. “Now their stand has changed because they could not get the numbers for two-thirds (number of MLAs required for dodging the anti-defection law),” said Patkar.

Patkar then met Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Ramesh Tawadkar with MLAs Sankalp Amonkar, Carlos Ferreira, Rudolfo Fernandes, Altone D’costa and Rajesh Faldessai, and urged him to change the seating in the assembly since Lobo, the leader of Opposition, had been removed as the leader of the Congress legislature party.(https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/goa/goa-congress-michael-lobo-digambar-kamat-conspiracy-dinesh-gundu-rao-8021245/) Faldesai was not present at the press conference called by All India Congress Committee (AICC) Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao on Sunday, in which he announced the removal of Lobo from the post.

Dinesh Gundu Rao and MLA Aleixo Sequiera, who the Congress leaders had said was with them, were not part of the delegation which met the Speaker on Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said on Monday: “We don’t need anybody. Ours is a stable government with the support of 25 MLs. That’s all.” About the Congress’s allegation that BJP had conspired to make eight Congress MLAs defect, Sawant said: “They have nothing else to do so they come here and blame us.”

Earlier in the day, Kamat and Lobo said that they were still with the party and the former said he was “deeply hurt” by the allegations after arriving at the assembly complex for the two-week Goa Legislative Assembly session which began in Porvorim on Monday.

Kamat said: “I was very hurt by the statement of Dinesh Gundu Rao that was circulated. I met Rao at my residence on Saturday night.” Kamat said that he had also informed Rao that his cadre was demoralised after he was removed as Leader of Opposition (LoP), a post taken over by Lobo in the incumbent assembly. Kamat was the LoP in the previous assembly.

In April, the Goa Congress was rejigged and Kamat was made a permanent member of the Congress Working Committee (CWC). “There were rumours that Digambar Kamat was going to the BJP before the 2017 election, before the 2022 election. If I wanted to go, I could have gone at that time. I was the only MLA left in the party (before the 2022 election) and I led the election from the front,” Kamat said.

Lobo, who was removed from the position of the Congress legislature party leader, said that he had also told Rao that he should be removed from the position of LoP and Kamat should be considered for it. “We are strongly with the Congress party,” Lobo said.

About Rao’s allegations made on Sunday, Lobo said: “There are always allegations against me. I was there for the meeting on Saturday and Sunday. For the press conference in the evening, if I don’t come, there are allegations?” He said that he and his wife Delilah Lobo, MLA from Siolim, had met him to discuss six homes in her constituency that were damaged amid heavy rain.

“I had told Mr Gundu Rao that I am not interested in continuing as LoP. I have businesses and there are various issues raised on me by the government side and it will be difficult and embarrassing for others. I told him he should choose someone else. Our senior leader Mr Digambar Kamat is there. They should ask him,” said Lobo.

On Sunday, after Lobo, Kamat and three other MLAs did not show up for a press conference held by Rao at the Congress House in Panaji, Rao said that Kamat and Lobo had tried to engineer the defection of eight Congress MLAs (two-thirds) to dodge the anti-defection law. The move came exactly three years after the Congress in Goa was stung by the defection of 10 of its 15 MLAs to the BJP on July 10, 2019.

Rao had called Lobo a “traitor” and “backstabber” and said that Kamat, despite his seniority, was engaging in “cheap, dirty and desperate” politics.