Clean Sail or Tough Experience? Amid Kamat Revolt, A Take a look at How Goa Cong Defectors Fared After Leaping Ship

Clean Sail or Tough Experience? Amid Kamat Revolt, A Take a look at How Goa Cong Defectors Fared After Leaping Ship [ad_1]

Final Up to date: July 11, 2022, 13:20 IST

Goa Congress candidates had taken a pledge of loyalty forward of the elections. (Twitter)

By December 2021, resignations got here in rapidly and the Congress’s power decreased to only one MLA. The Congress has misplaced 16 MLAs previously 5 years

In 2019, a bunch of 10 Congress legislators was huddled up in a gathering whereas watching the India -New Zealand match in Goa. After a number of hours of deliberations between then chief of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar and the MLAs, a consensus was reached. They marched to the Goa speaker’s workplace and tendered their resignations. As India misplaced the match to the Kiwis, the Goa Congress misplaced 10 of its 15 MLAs to the Bharatiya Janata Celebration, wickets which have proved to be costly for the social gathering within the political match since.

By January this yr, earlier than the meeting elections in March, the Congress had only one MLA of the 17 left of their kitty. The Goa Congress as soon as once more feels backstabbed as six of the 11 MLAs who received within the meeting elections have switched sides and are on their strategy to be part of the BJP. The revolt is led by a former CM Digambar Kamat, who was additionally the chief ministerial nominee for the Congress.

Shedding MLAs to the opposing social gathering shouldn't be the one drawback that the Congress has confronted within the sunny coastal state.

In 2017, the social gathering couldn't type the federal government regardless of profitable 17 seats. The explanations for the failure have been many. Celebration insiders admit that a lackadaisical strategy, bungling of the negotiations by Congress chief Digvijay Singh and a bunch of defections led by Goa Ahead’s Vijai Sardesai sealed the grand outdated social gathering’s future in Goa. By December 2021, resignations got here in rapidly and the Congress’s power decreased to only one MLA.

The Congress has misplaced 16 MLAs previously 5 years.

A take a look at among the MLAs who switched to the BJP from the Congress and the place they stand right this moment:

• Vishwajit Rane: Topping the record is Goa’s well being and city and nation planning minister. The son of Goa’s longest-serving legislator and veteran Congressman Pratap Singh Rane, Vishwajit resigned from the Congress in 2017 and joined the BJP. Regardless of his swap, he received the Valpoi seat with a cushty majority.
• Ravi Naik: The previous Goa chief minister was one of many high-profile MLAs who defected in December 2021. Naik had joined the BJP in 2000 to function the state’s deputy minister below the chief ministership of late Manohar Parrikar, however stop two years later to return to the Congress. In December 2021, he rejoined the BJP after 19 years and received the Ponda seat. He's presently Goa’s agriculture minister.
• Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monseratte and Jennifer Monseratte: The couple was among the many 10 who defected in 2019. He has served as a minister in a number of governments and is presently serving as Goa’s income and waste administration minister within the Pramod Sawant-led BJP authorities. Babush, as he's fondly referred to as by his constituents, has jumped from one social gathering to a different in his profession spanning 20 years. Having first contested in 2002 on a United Goans Democratic Celebration (UGDP) ticket, he supported the Manohar Parrikar authorities in 2004 and later resigned, together with two different ministers, bringing down the BJP authorities in Goa.
  Monserrate then converted to the Congress within the subsequent by-election solely to be expelled from the Congress in 2015 for six years for “anti-party actions”. He then joined the Goa Ahead Celebration in 2017, and joined the Congress as soon as once more, solely to defect to the BJP in 2019 earlier than the 2022 meeting elections.
  His spouse, Jennifer Monserrate, a two-term legislator, additionally resigned with him from the Congress in 2019 to affix the BJP and was made the income and IT minister within the Pramod Sawant cupboard. Apparently, she made manner for her husband to change into a minister within the current dispensation.
• Aleixo Lourenco: A two-term MLA from Curtorim dealt a extreme blow to the Congress after he converted to the Trinamool Congress simply earlier than the state meeting elections. Nevertheless, a month into the jap India social gathering, Lourenco stop and contested as an unbiased. He received the Curtorim seat.
• Luizinho Faliero: Former two-term Goa chief minister and long-term Congressman was one other main bolt from the blue. Upset over the Congress’s failure to type a authorities in 2017 and the following defections, the chief stop the social gathering to affix Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress. Faleiro was initially declared because the TMC’s candidate from Fatorda, however he was requested to withdraw his candidature days forward of the meeting elections handy it over to a younger feminine skilled. This was finished after the TMC supremo later determined to allot the ticket to girl lawyer Seoula Vas according to the TMC’s social gathering’s coverage to empower ladies. Faleiro was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by the TMC.
• Subhash Shirodkar: He was one of many first Congressmen who left the social gathering aggrieved and joined the BJP. Having fought each election from the Shiroda constituency, he's presently the water assets and cooperation minister in Sawant’s cupboard.
• Filipe Nery Rodrigues: Successful the Velim seat for the Congress for 4 phrases, he additionally headed to the BJP. He was made the coastal state’s water assets minister within the earlier BJP authorities. Nonetheless, the chief stop the social gathering on the final minute this January to affix the Nationalist Congress Celebration (NCP). Rodrigues was disgruntled after the BJP dropped his title for the Velim constituency in favour of journalist Savio Rodrigues.
• Nilkanth Halarnkar: He received the Thivim seat in 2017 on a Congress ticket, joined the BJP later and retained the seat within the latest elections. He's presently heading the Goa’s fisheries portfolio.
• Seven others who jumped ship — Antonio ‘Tony’ Fernandes (Taleigao), former Chief of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar (Quepem), Dayanand Sopte (Mandrem), Isidore Fernandes Unbiased candidate (Canacona), Wilfred D’sa (Nuvem), Francisco Silveira (St Andre) and Clafasio Dias (Cuncolim) — stood defeated.

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