Goa CLP leader to be chosen in September: Cong

Panaji, Aug 31 Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) President Amit Patkar on Wednesday said that a new Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader will be chosen in the second week of September.

"I had a discussion with our leaders K.C. Venugopal and Mukul Wasnik regarding the appointment of a new CLP leader. Wasnik, along with Dinesh Gundu Rao, will reach the state on September 11 or 12. This time the CLP leader will be chosen in Goa itself," Patkar said.

He said that the CLP leader will be chosen only after the senior leaders discuss the matter with all the MLAs.

Congress in Goa removed Michael Lobo as Leader of Opposition on July 10, since then the post has fallen vacant.

Seven days after the removal of Lobo, Congress had also removed former Chief minister Digambar Kamat from his position as permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on July 17 for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to split the MLAs to defect to BJP.

Congress Goa desk in charge Dinesh Gundu Rao on July 10 had charged that both Michael Lobo and Digamabar Kamat had hatched a conspiracy to damage the party.

"They hobnobbed with BJP to see that the Congress, which is the principal opposition party, is weakened and engineered to split," he had said.

Congress has 11 MLAs in the 40-member Legislative Assembly. Number of 8 (two third) MLAs is required to defect. However, early intervention of the Congress senior leaders had foiled the plan of defection, then.

"These (Kamat and Lobo) are the same people who had pledged before the Almighty ahead of the election that they will never leave the party. It is a clear reflection of how much they value God and what is the true value of their oath," Rao had said.

Rao had also said that BJPs mission is to finish opposition in the country. "They want to finish, especially the Congress. Because by finishing the Congress and by trying to weaken the Congress they feel that nobody will stop them from doing whatever they want," Rao then said.

The Congress has also filed a disqualification petition on July 11, with the Assembly Speaker against former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo for anti-party activities.