With scrutiny and practice scheduled for November 29, the main races will unfold on November 30, promising a day of speed, skill and spectacle.
The 54-year-old real estate developer, who joined Congress two years ago, after quitting the saffron party, played a key role in engineering the downfall of the Manohar Parikkar-led BJP government in 2005.
'The people of Goa have not given the BJP a mandate to form a government, but the fact is they are trying to form the government.'
Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat on Tuesday resigned following the humiliating defeat of Congress in the assembly election.
The swearing-in ceremony will be held at the Raj Bhavan at 11 am, sources said.
Outgoing Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat has said the ruling Congress would have done better in the assembly polls if he had been projected as the party's face for the top post. The picture in Goa, where the Bharatiya Janata Party is set to form the new government, would have been different if the March 3 elections had been fought completely under his leadership, he told reporters at Margao. "Elections were not completely fought under my leadership," Kamat said.
Police on Thursday filed chargesheet in the Louis Berger pay-off scandal naming former Goa chief minister Kamat as the "prime conspirator".
Six others, including the then PWD minister Churchill Alemao, were also listed in the charge sheet in the scam in which the US firm has been charged with bribing Indian officials to win two water developmental projects in Goa and Guwahati.
Goa's former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat was asked to furnish a surety of Rs 1 lakh.
Goa assembly speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Friday dismissed the disqualification petition filed by the Congress against eight of its MLAs who defected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in 2022.
The Congress on Sunday removed Michael Lobo from the post of Leader of Opposition in Goa legislative assembly, accusing him and former chief minister Digambar Kamat of "conspiring" against the party and "hobnobbing with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to ensure a split".
Wasnik claimed some people with "bad intentions" were trying to create a rift in the Goa Congress, but the legislators scuttled it by showing they are united.
'There is no hard evidence, but our MLAs have been getting calls from industrialists and mining mafia in the state to quit the Congress and join the BJP.'
Speaking to reporters in Panaji, the BJP's Goa desk in-charge C T Ravi said there was no discontent among the eight MLAs who joined the party earlier this year.
'Since we defeated their evil designs on July 10, their poaching approach became more aggressive with using blackmail and money power as tools to finish off the political opposition in Goa.'
A senior BJP leader said a reshuffle was likely in the next few days as the party would need to accommodate at least a couple of Congress MLAs who have crossed over,
'Why are the people who stood with the Congress through thick and thin, why are they leaving?'
The Congress has accused the two MLAs of hobnobbing with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to bring about a split in the opposition party.
The biggest jolt the Congress came in 2019 when a group of its 10 MLAs, led by then leader of opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, left the party together and joined the ruling BJP.
"They tried to buy our MLAs in Delhi and now in Punjab but we exposed them (BJP)," Kejriwal said.
'A daily dose of diversion & disinformation is handed out to undermine the Yatra. We remain undeterred. We will overcome these dirty tricks of the BJP'
According to sources, the Goa Congress unit has not held a single meeting after it failed to reach the majority mark of 21 in the 40-member assembly.
The five-state assembly poll results announced on Thursday brought gloom for several political heavyweights, including two current and five former chief ministers, who lost the electoral battle from their respective seats.
'Kejriwal could have easily deputed someone to step in as chief minister, but being the authoritative and self-centered personality that he is, he chose not to do it.' 'If the AAP loses Delhi, where it has a huge majority, the only one to blame would be Kejriwal,' asserts Ramesh Menon.
The opposition party termed the defection by eight out of its 11 MLAs in Goa only seven months after the assembly elections as the "height of betrayal and shamelessness."
Hit hard by defections in the last five years, the Congress in Goa on Friday made its candidates sign affidavits and take an oath of loyalty to the party in the presence of its senior leader Rahul Gandhi.
In a similar move in July 2019, 10 Congress MLAs had switched over to the BJP.
It is a record that the saffron party has created, where the majority of its legislators belonged to the minority community.
While none of the five 'rebel' MLAs were available for comments, sources in the BJP claimed the legislators were in touch with them.
The complaint, to be registered by the Anti-Corruption Bureau of vigilance department, indirectly refers to Kamat, who was also the mines minister, as it will book former mines and geology department director Arvind Lolienkar, his superiors and subordinates for alleged illegal recruitment in the department, in December last year.
Seventy-five government servants, nearly half of them policemen, had to face suspension on various counts after the Manohar Parrikar-led Bharatiya Janata Party government took over reins in Goa last year.
Recent events underscore the belief that wealth and politics go together. You have wealth and get into politics. Or, you are in politics, so naturally accumulate wealth, writes Mahesh Vijapurkar.
Goa Congress chief Subhash Shirodkar on Saturday resigned, owning responsibility for the party's defeat in the recently held Legislative Assembly election. Shirodkar handed his resignation to party president Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. He and former chief minister Digambar Kamat were in Delhi to submit a report on the party's performance in Goa. Shirodkar had said two days ago that he would be stepping down, taking the responsibility for the drubbing.
While 'family politics' is one of the major issues in the upcoming Goa legislative assembly polls, a young couple here is perhaps an exception, as both of them are rooting for rival political parties.
Goa Leader of Opposition Manohar Parrikar on Wednesday told the state legislative assembly that it can be 'inferred' that Chief Minister Digambar Kamat might have been involved in illegal mining activities.
A 36-year-old conman, who allegedly duped Congress Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament Vijay Darda of Rs 34 lakh by posing as former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat, has been arrested, police said on Friday. The accused, Digambar alias Balasaheb Khaire Patil, was arrested from Solapur.
Former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat, who was indicted by Justice M B Shah Commission in its report on illegal mining in the state, on Friday said the commission never asked him to present his side of the story. "I was never called for any inquiry or justification by the Shah Commission. Whatever is interpreted by the Commission in the report should be verified by the state government," Kamat said, reacting to the report for the first time.
Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and all Congress members in his cabinet figure in the party's first list of 22 candidates for the March 3 assembly polls, which was announced in Panaji on Saturday. The list contains two new faces, but the party has sprung a surprise by denying a ticket to Victoria Fernandes, the Congress' lone woman legislator. Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Subhash Shirodkar said the second and final list of 11 nominees will be announced on Sunday
The Goa government on Thursday ordered a magisterial enquiry into the death of two tribals in Balli village, in Goa, during an agitation demanding reservation in government jobs.
Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat on Thursday said that the officials from state mines and geology department protecting illegal mines, will be dealt with stern punishment.
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