PANAJI: Promising to continue its fight against the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, Congress, on Thursday, urged its workers to gear up for bypolls in Valpoi, and if required, even in Panaji. The decision was taken during the Pradesh Congress executive committee meeting where the party MLAs vouched to take an aggressive stand against the Parrikar government.
“The Panaji seat has not been vacated yet, but we have asked our party workers to prepare for
byelection in Valpoi
and wherever BJP contests, wherever bypolls are held. The mandate is ours and the Congress party will be aggressive,” opposition leader and Congress MLA, Chandrakant Kavlekar said after the meeting.
This was the first meeting after the Congress emerged as the single largest party in the assembly elections but could not form the government. Since then, the party has seen more instability than the ruling coalition government, say political observers.
Valpoi MLA, Vishwajit Rane quit the party on the day of the crucial floor test for the Manohar Parrikar government, reducing the Congress count to 16.
“The disqualification petition is ready and we will file the petition,” Kavlekar repeated as he has done for the last two weeks. Kavlekar also brushed aside speculations that some of the Congress MLAs were likely to quit from the party in the coming days.
Congress MLA, Tony Fernandes, a close aide of former St Cruz MLA Atanasio Monserrate, is one of the MLAs who may quit in order to allow Monserrate to contest again from St Cruz. Monserrate contested from Panaji in the recently-concluded elections and lost to BJP candidate Siddharth Kunkolienkar.
"None of our 16 MLAs will leave the party. All of them are intact," Kavlekar said in response to the speculation.
The party has also appointed a committee, chaired by Margao MLA Digambar Kamat, to oversee the
golden jubilee celebrations
of the
Opinion Poll.
Goa will mark 50 years since the decisive exercise was held to decide whether Goa should be merged with Maharashtra. The meeting was held by president, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee,
Luizinho Faleiro.