Cyclone disaster in Goa Kong, Lobo sacked from post

By Our Special Correspondent

Michael Lobo was removed from the post of Leader of the Opposition on Sunday amid speculation of mass defections in the Goa Congress. State party in-charge Dinesh Gundurao said that action will also be taken against MLA Digambar Kamath, who is involved in engineering conspiracy against the Congress party.

Rao said that the BJP is trying to split 2/3 of the Congress so that these defectors are not disqualified under the Anti-Defection Act. The party gave everything to Mr. Kamat, who was made the Chief Minister of Goa despite being from the BJP, while Lobo was made the Leader of the Opposition despite opposition to his name. But both of them betrayed the party and the people who elected them. Rao said that a new leader of opposition will be elected.

He alleged that the BJP is trying to bait these Congress MLAs with huge sums of money. The amount offered by BJP is huge. We took action against Ma R Kamath and Lobo as they were involved in this conspiracy. The remaining five MLAs are with us. Rao said that BJP will not be allowed to break our party.

The Congress' move comes as rumors spread throughout the day that eight of the 11 MLAs are likely to join the BJP in the monsoon session of the assembly to be held on Monday.

The Congress sent Rao to handle the situation, but only three MLAs turned up for a joint press conference organized by the party to show that all MLAs were on their side. Former Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar has alleged that party MLAs was offered Rs.40 crores to join the BJP. Congress legislators are getting calls from industrialists and coal mafia.

Rao had met Lobo earlier in the day. It seems that six MLAs including Kamat, Lobo, his wife Delila Lobo, Kedar Naik and Rajesh Faldesai have expressed their willingness to join the BJP. Lobo, however, dismissed rumors that the Assembly sessions were about to start and that a rumor was being spread by someone or the other.

Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar canceled the notification of election for the post of Deputy Speaker scheduled to be held on Sunday, July 12. Ahead of the assembly elections in March, Congress candidates submitted affidavits that they would not switch to the BJP. Rahul Gandhi's visit to Goa. They also vowed to convert to the BJP in front of the Mahalakshmi temple and mosques at the Panaji Holy Cross shrine.