Goa Congress sacks Michael Lobo as leader of Opposition in Assembly for planning defection

New Delhi: Congress on Sunday (July 10, 2022) sacked Michael Lobo as the Leader of Opposition in the Goa Assembly for conspiring to engineer a defection in the party. AICC observer Dinesh Gundu Rao in a press conference said that a "conspiracy" was hatched by some of its leaders along with the BJP to weaken it. "A conspiracy was hatched by some of our own leaders with the BJP to see that the Congress party in Goa is weakened and to engineer defections. This conspiracy was led by 2 of our own leaders LoP Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat," Dinesh Gundu Rao said.

"Both these people had been working in total coordination with BJP. One person - Digambar Kamat - did it to safeguard his own skin because so many cases are against him and the other person - Michael Lobo - for the sake of power and position. BJP wants to finish the Opposition," he added.

Congress party will not be disheartened or weakened. We will take up this issue in a more aggressive manner. We will take it to the people this betrayal that is being engineered by 2 people for the sake of power & personal gain: Dinesh Gundu Rao, AICC Goa in-charge pic.twitter.com/N2rpRx40hH — ANI (@ANI) July 10, 2022

Congress Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao said the BJP was trying for a two/third split, to see that a minimum of eight of the Congress MLAs leave the party. “Many of our people have been offered huge amounts of money. I'm shocked at the amount offered. But our six MLAs stood firm, I'm proud of them,” he said.

“The Congress party will not be disheartened or weakened. We will take up this issue in a more aggressive manner. We will take it to the people this betrayal that is being engineered by two people for the sake of power and personal gain,” Rao added.

In another development, Speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, Ramesh Tawadkar on Sunday cancelled the notification announcing elections for the post of Deputy Speaker.

The order withdrawing notification of election for the post of Deputy Speaker was withdrawn on Sunday morning. The election was scheduled to be held on July 12 during the upcoming monsoon Assembly session.