Goa Congress moves its 5 MLAs to undisclosed location ahead of Assembly session; to announce new CLP leader

Ahead of the Goa Assembly session beginning on Monday the opposition Congress has moved five of its MLAs to an undisclosed location after five other party legislators went incommunicado a senior Congress leader saidThe party will also announce the name of its new leader of opposition before the commencement of the Assembly session according to Goa Congress chief Amit PatkarAs on Monday morning five of the total 11 Congress MLAs in the 40member Goa Assembly were with the party while five others remained out of reachAnother MLA Aleixo Sequeira was at home and pledged his support to the partyA senior Congress leader confirmed that they have moved the five MLAs who are with the party to an undisclosed location to avoid further split in the outfitThese MLAs will arrive at the Assembly complex to participate in the session he saidThe state Congress faced an embarrassing situation on Sunday when five of its MLAs Michael Lobo Digambar Kamat Kedar Naik Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo went incommunicadoThe Congress subsequently removed Lobo from the post of Leader of Opposition in the Goa Assembly the partys state desk incharge Dinesh Gundu Rao announced late Sunday eveningLobo and Kamat were hatching a conspiracy by hobnobbing with the BJP to engineer a split in the Congress Rao allegedTherefore the party has decided to remove Lobo from the post of the Leader of Opposition Action will be taken against both Lobo and Kamat he saidRao had also said that if the five MLAs cross sides they will have to face elections again as the group does not enjoy the twothird majority of the partys legislative wing to escape action under the antidefection lawWhile none of the five rebel MLAs were available for comments sources in the BJP claimed the legislators were in touch with themTalking to reporters on Sunday Goa Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Pramod Sawant said he would not like to comment on developments in the other party CongressAsked if any of the Congress legislators had come to meet him Sawant said Many MLAs come to meet me specially because the Assembly is being convened from MondayOn Sunday night the Congress held a meeting of its legislature party resolving to remove Lobo from the post of Leader of OppositionPatkar had said the name of the new LoP would be announced before the session begins on MondayCongress president Sonia Gandhi on Sunday asked senior party leader Mukul Wasnik to rush to Goa to oversee latest political developments in the stateThe ruling BJP in Goa has 20 MLAs and the Pramod Sawant government also enjoys the support of five other legislators two from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MGP and three Independents The Congress had won 11 seats in the Assembly polls held in February this yearThe Goa Foward Party GFP and Revolutionary Goans Party RGP had won one seat each while the Aam Aadmi Party AAP bagged two seatsThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever