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Journalism of Courage
Barely a week after averting what it charged was a plot to engineer defection of eight of its 11 MLAs in Goa, the state Congress has shifted five of its MLAs to Chennai. The party’s move came just ahead of the Presidential election scheduled for Monday.
These MLAs — Sankalp Amonkar, Yuri Alemao, Altone D’Costa, Rudolfo Fernandes and Carlos Ferreira — were flown to Chennai in Tamil Nadu, where the Congress is part of the ruling DMK-led alliance, on Friday evening soon after the day’s proceedings of the state Assembly were concluded.
The AICC in-charge of Goa, Dinesh Gundu Rao, said that the five party MLAs had gone to Chennai to avoid alleged “pressure tactics and threats” from the ruling BJP. He tweeted on Saturday evening, “We have not shifted any MLA’s. The 5 @INCIndia MLA’s have gone to Chennai voluntarily to avoid the incessant attempts, continuous calls, pressure tactics and threats being made by @DrPramodPSawant & @BJP4India to engineer a split in @INCGoa.”
Sources said the MLAs are expected to return to Panaji on Sunday evening. The Goa Assembly’s monsoon session, which started on July 11, will come to an end on July 22.
Six other Congress MLAs, who were not part of the group that flew to Chennai, include ex-chief minister Digambar Kamat, Michael Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Aleixo Sequeira and Rajesh Faldesai.
Last Sunday, the Congress had removed Michael Lobo from the post of the Congress Legislature Party leader, accusing him and Kamat of conspiring with the BJP to engineer a split in the the party’s legislature wing. Subsequently, the party has also filed a disqualification petition against Kamat and Lobo before the Assembly Speaker. A former BJP minister, Lobo had switched to the Congress in the run-up to the state Assembly polls held in February.
Lobo returned to Goa from Mumbai on Saturday, telling reporters that he had gone there on a business trip.
Last Monday, all the Congress MLAs barring Kamat had attended a meeting called by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Mukul Wasnik, who was sent by the party central leadership for firefighting in the Goa unit.
The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president, Amit Patkar, charged on Friday that the ruling BJP has continued to pressure the party MLAs to switch sides.
Patkar, who attended a meeting of the AICC general secretaries and PCC presidents in Delhi on Thursday, said that a discussion on the political crisis in the party’s Goa unit was also held with K C Venugopal, the AICC general secretary in charge of organisation.
“BJP continues to pressure our MLAs, their offers keep rising every day,” Patkar alleged on Friday. “BJP should just accept healthy opposition. They should respect democracy and the mandate of the people,” he said.
“They are offering huge sums of monetary benefits, they are saying we will file cases against you. It is still going on,” Patkar alleged. “You (BJP) did it in 2019, now you should stop it,” he said, claiming that “Our MLAs will not succumb to the pressure. I am very confident about my MLAs, people have reposed faith in them and elected them.”
The former GPCC chief, Girish Chodankar, said in a tweet on Friday, “In Goa, BJP ministers don’t have it, but Goa Congress MLAs are privileged to have escorts from @Goapolice round the clock. They also keep a watch on their homes. Many police inspectors, Dy SPs are on the job.”
On Friday, Goa Forward Party (GFP) leader Vikas Bhagat tweeted, “OSD’s from CMO desperately trying to fish MLAs from Opposition. Has been personally meeting MLAs and offering. Why is this desperation Mr. Chief Minister?” GFP general secretary Durgadas Kamat also tweeted on Saturday evening: “Even amid heavy rains fishing continues ”
The BJP has, however, sought to distance itself from these allegations. While Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said that the BJP has a stable government in Goa and did not need any more MLAs, the state BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said the party can never shut its doors on anyone.
