The opposition Congress in Goa has shifted five out of its 11 MLAs in the state to Chennai ahead of the July 18 Presidential elections. The five MLAs - Sankalp Amonkar, Yuri Alemao, Altone D'Costa, Rudolf Fernandes and Carlose Alvares Ferreira - were moved to Chennai on Friday evening soon after the proceedings of the Assembly session got over for the day.
"All these MLAs flew to Chennai directly after the session got over on Friday," a senior Congress leader said, adding that they would return to Goa directly to participate in the presidential polls to be held on Monday. The monsoon session of Goa Assembly, which started on July 11, will continue till next Friday. However, six other MLAs of the opposition party - former chief minister Digambar Kamat, Michael Lobo, Delialah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Aleixo Sequeira and Rajesh Faldesai - are not part of the group that went to Chennai, sources said.
When contacted, Michael Lobo said he had no idea why the five other MLAs were taken to Chennai. "I was not invited. I don't know why they were taken to Chennai," said Lobo, who claimed that he was in Mumbai on Friday evening as part of a business visit. Last Sunday, the Congress had removed Michael Lobo from the post of Leader of Opposition in the Assembly, accusing him and Kamat of conspiring against the party and "hobnobbing with the BJP" to engineer a split in the the party's state legislative wing.
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The party had said the five MLAs, including Lobo and Kamat, had gone incommunicado. However, these MLAs attended the Goa Assembly proceedings on the first day of its monsoon session on Monday and claimed there was nothing wrong and that they were with the party. On Tuesday, 10 out of the total 11 MLAs had attended a meeting chaired by senior leader Mukul Wasnik.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Amit Patkar has filed a disqualification petition against Kamat and Lobo before the Assembly Speaker.
Polls to elect the next president will be held on July 18. The race for the Rashtrapati Bhavan is between National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) Droupadi Murmu and the joint opposition's candidate Yashwant Sinha.
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