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.
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.
Five Goa Congress MLAs, who went incommunicado a day before, attended the state assembly proceedings on the first day of the monsoon session on Monday, and claimed there was 'nothing wrong' in the opposition party.
Naik, 71, is the first senior Congress leader to resign after Rahul Gandhi announced on Sunday in his concluding speech that he wants to give the younger generation a chance to come forward and lead the party.
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.
Former Goa Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane, who had defied the party whip to vote against the trust motion of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar last month, on Thursday formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Rane, 87, who has served as the chief minister of the coastal state for six times, had won from the Poriem assembly constituency as many as 11 consecutive times.
The opposition party had earlier written to Sinha, staking claim to form the government on Friday and then again on Sunday.
The anguish of the party MLAs seems to be directed at Digvijay Singh who has been handling the party affairs in Goa.
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.
Congress candidate Francisco Sardinha on Saturday won the Mormugao Lok Sabha seat by a margin of over 40,000 votes.
The Congress has accused the two MLAs of hobnobbing with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to bring about a split in the opposition party.
'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.'
A day after quitting the Congress, former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro on Tuesday arrived in Kolkata, where he is likely to join the Trinamool Congress, party sources said.
The controversial Silly Souls bar and restaurant operates from the same address -- House No. 452, Bouta Vaddo, Assagao -- from which a company controlled by Irani's husband and family, Eightall Food and Beverage, conducts its primary business, Chodankar said.
The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee on Saturday warned its legislators against venting out their anger in public against the party leadership. The GPCC meeting, which was held against the backdrop of a rebellion by five legislators demanding leadership change in the state, was also attended by Goa Chief Minister Digamber Kamat. Goa Congress leaders who took a dig at rebellious legislators, however, shielded the chief minister and refused to seek an explanation from him.
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."
Former chief minister of Goa and Congress veteran Luizinho Faleiro, resigned as an MLA and a primary member of the party on Monday claiming the state party unit is run by a 'coterie' of leaders even as he praised Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee saying the country needs a leader like her to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The NCP has already put its claim on Deputy CM's post while the Congress Legislature Party will meet later in the evening to elect their leader.
'This is a new Congress. Let the BJP be warned.'
While none of the five 'rebel' MLAs were available for comments, sources in the BJP claimed the legislators were in touch with them.
'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.'
He said his supporters were apprehensive that joining TMC would invite the "outside party" to Goa which will split votes.
Yuri Alemao, Altone D'costa and advocate Carlos Alvares Ferreira, the three Congress MLAs who didn't join the eight of their former party men in jumping ship speak up about their decisions and their motivations to stay with the 137-year-old Congress.
The Congress on Saturday issued a show-cause notice to its leader Vijai Bhike after his statement blaming the ally Goa Forward Party for the poor performance in the last month's Goa assembly elections drew a sharp response from the latter.
All the candidates checked in the resort on Tuesday evening with their luggage, indicating that the government formation may be a long haul.
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.
'After joining, I realised the TMC in no way could bring a 'new dawn' in Goa.'
In the 2017 state assembly polls, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats.
'Why are the people who stood with the Congress through thick and thin, why are they leaving?'
'They just want to show that the Congress is in disarray.'
Political parties were bracing for the assembly election results on Thursday in the crucial state of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and politically volatile Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur, sending out feelers for possible post-poll tie-ups.
The Congress president and United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi surprised patrons at a restaurant called Fisherman's Wharf in Goa on Sunday afternoon.
Michael Lobo, who resigned as deputy speaker of the Goa Legislative Assembly, and three of the 10 MLAs who joined the BJP -- Chandrakant Kavlekar, Jeniffer Monserratte, Philip Neri Rodrigues -- were sworn in as new ministers.
Besides Aryan Khan, the arrested accused are identified as Munmun Dhamecha, Arbaaz Merchant, Ismeet Singh, Mohak Jaswal, Gomit Chopra, Nupur Sarika, and Vikrant Chhokar.
The state government had not issued any statement or made any comment about the health condition of Parrikar, who is currently recuperating at his private residence after undergoing treatment at All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
With the BJP's strength in the 40-member Goa assembly increasing to 27 with two-thirds of Congress legislators joining it, the Sawant government does not need allies' support any longer.
The Goa Congress has demanded Sri Ram Sene chief Pramod Muthalik be detained under the National Security Act, claiming him as a "threat to national security".
Louis Berger officials had allegedly paid Rs 50-60 lakh each as bribe to former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and the then Public Works Department Minister Churchill Alemao.
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