India / Goa congress crisis michael lobo sonia gandhi mukul wasnik bjp

Goa | The assembly session in Goa is starting from Monday and before that the opposition Congress has sent its five MLAs to an undisclosed place. The five other MLAs of the party are already not able to be contacted. A top Congress official gave this information. The special thing is that in the midst of deteriorating political situation, Congress President Sonia Gandhi had sent Mukul Wasnik to Goa.

The party's Goa unit president Amit Patkar said the party would announce the name of the new leader of the opposition before the session begins. Till Monday morning, out of 11 Congress MLAs, five were with the party, while five other MLAs could not be contacted. MLA Alexo Sequeira is at his home and has declared his support to the party.

A senior party leader confirmed that the five MLAs have been shifted to some other place. He said that these MLAs are with the party and they have been taken to an unknown place to save the party from further splitting. "Those MLAs will come to the assembly to attend the session," he said.

Significantly, the opposition Congress in Goa on Sunday said that five of its 11 MLAs in the state are not able to be contacted and has sided with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over two of its MLAs Michael Lobo and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat. Together they accused the party of hatching a "conspiracy". The development comes amid speculation that some Congress MLAs may join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 40-member House.

The development in Goa comes at a time when the Maha Vikas Aghadi government in neighboring Maharashtra, led by Eknath Shinde, recently collapsed after some MLAs of the ruling Shiv Sena rebelled.