Goa: Despite poaching, Congress is confident of forming government

In an unprecedented move, two MLAs of the opposition party, have resigned from the Goa state Assembly at a time when the state government is not functioning or rather does not exist due to poor health of the Chief Minister. Right at the time when the sword was hanging over the Parrikar government, the two Congress MLAs Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar resigned from the Assembly saying that they are resigning willingly and without any pressure.

Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar says “It is a clear case of poaching and the BJP particularly the BJP Chief Amit Shah can go to any extent to save illegal minority government of Goa”.

The way things developed after Chief Minsiter Manohar Parrikar returned to Goa from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi clearly shows that the BJP is nervous and is on the verge of loosing the power in the state. “They (BJP) knew well that the Parrikar government’s days are numbered or rather it was a question of two to three days and that is why Amit Shah did this poaching. It is quite ironical that at a time when there is anger against the state government in people, the opposition members resigned and the speaker accepted the resignation immediately” says Goa Congress President Girish Chodankar.

According to Pramod Sawant, Speaker of the Assembly “I received resignation from two Congress MLAs Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar. They confirmed they're doing this willingly, without any pressure. I accepted the resignations. Process will be completed, copies will be sent to all members of House, Guv & EC.”

“This is not new to BJP, they flouted every constitutional norm to usurp power, despite the fact that Congress emerged as the single largest party after the election results but the Governor, instead of inviting the single largest party to form the government, chose to invite BJP. Now also when the state is suffering from non-governance because of the ailing Chief Minister, BJP, instead of going for floor test or convening the house, they have manoeuvred the Congress MLAs to resign which amounts to rubbing salt on the wounds of the people of Goa just to keep the power in their own hand” laments Girish.

As the major parties now have the same number in the house after the resignation of two MLAs any combination will require the support of 20 MLAs to form the government. Congress is still upbeat, despite the poaching, because they feel that they enjoy the support of MGP(3) and NCP(1) bringing their total strength to 18. They are also confident that the BJP will break. Congress is also sure of getting the support of two Independent MLAs out of three. “BJP and Amit Shah can not fool the people of Goa for long, forget about forming the government, BJP MLAs will find it difficult to even visit their constituency as the anger against BJP among people has been on the rise constantly,” says Girish.