New Delhi: The Congress party on Sunday removed Michael Lobo as the leader of the Opposition in the Goa Assembly for anti-party activities. Ever since Congress sacked the leader from the post, it has been blaming the BJP for hatching a conspiracy to break the party. Girish Chondankar, a senior Congress leader alleged that BJP offered Rs 40 crore to MLAs to defect to BJP.
”BJP planned a 2/3rd split, to see that a minimum of 8 of our MLAs leave…I am shocked at the amount offered,” said Dinesh Gundu Rao. However, the BJP dismissed the allegations, saying there is no base in it.
Does BJP need Congress MLA’s support?
Talking to the media on Monday, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that they do not need any support. We have a stable govt with the support of 25 MLAs. ”They (Congress leaders) are doing
his blame-game drama,” said Sawant.
We don’t need anyone, we have a stable govt with the support of 25 MLAs. Since they (Congress) have nothing to do, they are doing this blame-game drama: Goa CM Pramod Sawant on Congress accusing BJP of defections pic.twitter.com/sioajOuBuj
— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2022
In the 40-member of Goa assembly, the Congress has the support of 11 MLAs. However, Dinesh Gundu Rao said 5 MLAs are on the run, but we did not have contact with them. This means five MLAs are incommunicado. They are: Lobo, Kaman, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo.
A party in the state needs the support of 21 MLAs to enjoy power. At present, the BJP has 20 MLAs and has the support of 3 MLAs of the Mahrashtrawadi Gomantak Party and 2 MLAs of Independent or non-partisan politicians.
It means the BJP has the support of 25 MLA in the assembly. This backs the statement of the CM that ”We don’t need anyone, we have a stable govt with the support of 25 MLAs”.
However, the Congress MLAs who want to join the BJP can only evade the anti-defection law if 2/3 of the total MLAs of the party decided to leave with them.
In this case, if 8 out of 11 Congress MLAs leave the party, the law will not be applied. Otherwise, the 5 rebel MLAs will lose their membership in the Legislative Assembly.
