In a fresh twist to the row over an upscale Goa bar which the Congress has linked with Union minister Smriti Irani's daughter, the district administration has issued a notice to the local village panchayat seeking relevant documents in response to a complaint alleging the outlet was built illegally.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the decks for oath taking of Manohar Parrikar as the chief minister of Goa by refusing the plea of Congress to stay the ceremony, saying the BJP has shown the support of 21 out of the 40 newly elected MLAs.
The ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday took a veiled dig at the Congress by asking it to safeguard its newly elected Karnataka MLAs from being poached by the Bharatiya Janata Party as was allegedly done by the saffron party in Goa amidst the Bharat Jodo Yatra.
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
Earlier, BJP leader Ram Lal said the Goa government is stable and no demand has been made for a change in the leadership.
In Goa, where Assembly elections are a few months away, a delegation of Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders led by Lok Sabha member Saugata Roy and including former Union Minister Babul Supriyo and the party's vice president Luizinho Faleiro met Governor P S Sridharan Pillai and requested him to immediately seek resignation from the chief minister and announce investigation by an independent agency.
The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party will be forging an alliance for the forthcoming state legislative assembly elections in Goa, a senior NCP leader said on Wednesday. "The alliance will happen. The Congress and the NCP are both keen to have an alliance for Goa elections," NCP Goa Observer Bharati Chawan said. She also rubbished all the doubts raised in this regard by a few local leaders. Congress leaders had said that the party can go alone in the state.
The Shiv Sena and Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday decided to forge a pre-poll alliance for the next month's assembly elections in Goa, saying that the Congress didn't respond to their proposal for a joint contest.
The recent move by a group of eight Congress MLAs in Goa to merge with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party was as per constitutional norms, state assembly speaker Ramesh Tawadkar said.
Attacking the BJP, he said that the saffron party has remained a complete failure in the areas of COVID-19 management, livelihood, tourism.
State Congress chief Girish Chodankar told reporters that AAP leaders were 'already in talks with Congress leaders'.
The TMC, which is keen to leave a mark in its outing in Goa, had suggested a broad alliance but not much has moved on the proposal due to competing interests and apparent lack of faith between the opposition parties.
Hitting out at Congress leader Vijay Wadettiwar for indulging in a blame game over the MVA's defeat in the state assembly, Raut said those who don't believe in consensus and compromise have no right to be in an alliance.
Goa's Congress legislator Agnelo Fernandes and 200 others were arrested on Monday after they marched in protest towards the Republic Day celebration in the city. The legislator was protesting under banner of River Princess Hatao Manch demanding removal of a huge cargo ship which has run aground on north Goa's Candolim shore.
In their resignation letter to All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) chief Mamata Banerjee, the departing leaders said, 'We had thought that the AITC is a secular party but with deep regret, we would like to bring to your notice that AITC has tried to divide Goans on the basis of religion by aligning with Sudan Dhavalikar.'
In a protests against the decision of Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala to invite BJP to form the government despite falling short of the required numbers, the Congress has been demanding they be called to form the government in Goa and Manipur as it had emerged as the largest party in the 2017 assembly election.
The lowest victory margin of 76 was recorded in St Andre constituency in North Goa, where Revolutionary Goans Party, a new political outfit in the state, made its debut by defeating BJP candidate and sitting MLA Francis Silveira. RGP candidate Viresh Borkar won the contest.
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.
Elections to the 40-member Goa Assembly are due in two months. Recent visits by Banerjee, Kejriwal and Prime Minister Narendra Modi heated up things in the otherwise "susegad" atmosphere in the small state.
The vote share of the Congress, which won 11 assembly seats in Goa this time, plunged by nearly five per cent as compared to what it was in the previous election, while the BJP, which retained power in the coastal state, saw a marginal rise in it, the data shared by the Election Commission shows.
'Goa is a tiny state, but in terms of its Business of Politics, several powerful lobbies of India are involved in it, be it the mining lobby, hoteliers' lobby, casino lobby, hawala lobby, drugs lobby etc.'
Chidambaram, who is the Congress' senior election observer for the Goa Assembly polls, also hit out at the Trinamool Congress for its barbs at the Congress for not forging an alliance with it, saying the party continued to poach Congress leaders, despite making an offer of a tie-up.
It is a record that the saffron party has created, where the majority of its legislators belonged to the minority community.
'If you weed out corruption, you will bring glory to Goa.'
Both the BJP and the Congress said they will seek support of the MGP in case they fall short of the majority mark of 21.
In a statement, the lawyer of Irani's daughter, said his client is neither an owner nor operating the restaurant called Silly Souls Goa.
Congress veteran P Chidambaram held a meeting with the Goa assembly poll candidates of his party and those of ally Goa Forward Party on Wednesday night, where it was decided that the alliance will name its leader immediately after the election results are out and stake claim for government formation, sources said.
Why weren't the chief ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra and Telangana -- all of which have borders with Karnataka -- not invited to Saturday's swearing-in ceremony, asks Shyam G Menon.
The Association of Democratic Reforms said Goa has set a unique record, which is "unparalleled" in the history of Indian democracy.
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.
Soon after meeting, Raut hinted at a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in UP and Goa, stating that the parties are thinking of working together in both the states that are scheduled to go to assembly polls early next year.
"The TMC wants to defeat BJP and will do whatever necessary. We want to ensure that BJP does not win or form a government through the backdoor," Moitra said when asked about a possible pre-poll alliance with the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Congress.
The outlet, 'Silly Souls Cafe and Bar', was at the centre of a raging controversy after the Congress last week alleged Union minister Smriti Irani's daughter was linked to the property, a charge rejected by the minister.
The resignation of Kandolkar and two other leaders, who had contested on the TMC symbol, came as another setback for the Mamata Banerjee-led party which is struggling to retain its flock in Goa since the poll debacle.
Giving a new poll slogan of 'Khel Zatlo' in Goa, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said an anti-BJP alliance has already taken shape in the coastal state under the banner of her party TMC and now it is for the Congress to decide whether it wants to join the grouping ahead of elections to take on the saffron outfit.
The suspected drug peddler, Dattaprasad Gaonkar, was detained from Anjuna after the accused duo "confessed" in their statement that they had procured drugs from him.
The Parliament session is set to start today, with various issues slated to be discussed, including the Waqf Act (Amendment) Bill.
Naik is apparently upset as his son Siddhesh was hopeful for a ticket from Cumbharjua constituency which was represented by Madkaikar before joining the BJP.
Former Goa chief minister Churchill Alemao on Saturday resigned from the Congress to contest as an independent candidate from the South Goa Lok Sabha seat, protesting the denial of a party ticket to his daughter Valanka.
In yet another jolt the Congress ahead of the Goa Assembly polls, the party's state working president, Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco, resigned as member of the legislative assembly on Monday, reducing the party's strength to two in the 40-member House.
