Rumour mills remained in full flow the whole day today as Goa Congress party’s 11 MLAs were found together in a Hotel on the eve of the monsoon session of the Assembly. The prospects of an encore of the Shiv Sena drama played out a few days ago was not lost on anyone observing.
Congress was quick to denounce the rumours and speculations as baseless maintaining that the MLAs are in a huddle for preparing themselves for the session tomorrow. Goa desk in-charge in the Congress scheme of things, Dinesh Gundu Rao, termed it “totally a rumour”, while vehemently denying that the Congress MLAs are ready to jump ship and join ruling BJP. as is speculated.
The root of the rumours is beleived to be a statement in May by BJP national general secretary and the party’s state in-charge, C T Ravi, that BJP will have 30 MLAs by the end of the year. BJP, with it’s 20 MLAs had formed the government with the help of 5 others.
The scare is also not unfounded. In 2019, 10 of 15 Congress legislators had ‘merged’ the legislature party with BJP and become BJP MLAs. The fright is amplified in the wake of recent events played out in Maharashtra where almost entire Shiv Sena legislative party broke away in support of BJP, resulting in the collapse of the government.
State Congress president Amit Patkar tried to justify by informing that since eight of their 11 MLAs are new, there was a meeting on floor management (in the House). The BJP-led government, “only creates rumour and confusion among people”, he said.
