Five Goa Congress MLAs attend Assembly session; claim nothing is wrong

Speaker says no info about ‘split’ in Congress

Five Goa Congress MLAs, who went incommunicado a day before, attended the State Assembly proceedings on the first day of the monsoon session on Monday, and claimed there was "nothing wrong" in the Opposition party.

On Sunday, out of the total 11 Congress MLAs in the State, five -- Michael Lobo, Digambar Kamat, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo -- had gone incommunicado, a senior party leader earlier said.

The Congress subsequently removed Mr. Lobo from the post of Leader of Opposition in the 40-member State Assembly.

Ahead of the Assembly session, Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar said he had not received any intimation about a ‘split’ in the State Congress Legislature Party.

When reporters asked Mr. Tawadkar about a “split” in the Congress, the Speaker said, “I have no intimation whatsoever. I was in my office on Sunday preparing for the monsoon session of the Assembly.” He also replied in negative when asked if he was informed about the change of Leader of Opposition by the Congress Legislature Party.

Earlier, Congress's Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao had alleged that "Mr. Lobo and Mr. Kamat were hatching a conspiracy by hobnobbing with the BJP to engineer a split in the Congress." Talking to reporters on Monday, Mr. Lobo claimed there was nothing wrong in the party.

“There is nothing wrong. I don't know what is the problem. All Congress MLAs were together. We went to South Goa for a meeting on Sunday. They (Congress leaders) again wanted to have another press conference which was not required, so we did not attend it,” said Mr. Lobo, whose wife Delialah is also a Congress MLA.