Goa Congress Files Petitions With Speaker To Disqualify Lobo, Kamat For Engineering 'Defection'

The Congress has charged the two MLAs of conspiring with the ruling BJP to divide the opposition party.

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The Congress on Monday petitioned Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar to disqualify its MLAs Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat, news agency PTI reported.

The Congress has charged the two MLAs of conspiring with the ruling BJP to divide the opposition party.

Amit Patkar, president of the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee, said disqualification applications had been filed against Lobo and Kamat, and that the Speaker had been notified of the party's intention to remove Lobo as Leader of Opposition in the Assembly.

"They ( BJP) have done it earlier in Karnataka, MP also & are doing it now also...Earlier also they toppled our govt. Now to make their govt strong (in Goa) they're taking more MLAs. They're doing this as they are short of MLAs for Presidential polls," Mallikarjun Kharge was quoted as saying by ANI on its official Twitter handle. 

They ( BJP) have done it earlier in Karnataka, MP also & are doing it now also...Earlier also they toppled our govt. Now to make their govt strong (in Goa) they're taking more MLAs. They're doing this as they are short of MLAs for Presidential polls: Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress pic.twitter.com/xJwdY6KsOo

— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2022

"Disqualification petitions have been filed against both the MLAs as they have voluntarily given up membership of the party. There is a Supreme Court judgment which states that any anti-party activity amounts to giving up of the membership of the party." Patkar was quoted by PTI in its report. 

He said that the BJP's attempt to break the Congress Legislative Party had failed because it could not assemble the requisite number of lawmakers without triggering anti-defection provisions.

"The BJP wanted to repeat what they have done in Maharashtra through money and muscle power. We ensured on Sunday that the defection in our party stops," Patkar said, PTI reported.

According to Patkar, the BJP uses such techniques because it does not want any opposition in the states where it rules.

(With Inputs From PTI)