PANAJI
Nearly two months after they claimed they 'split' from the Congress and 'merged' with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), eight legislators are facing petitions seeking their disqualification under the anti-defection law.
Two sets of petitions have been filed against the eight legislators before Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar, one by former Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief, Girish Chodankar and another set by one Domnick Noronha, another Congressman.
Yet another set of disqualification petitions is likely to be filed before the Speaker officially by the Congress as announced by GPCC president Amit Patkar and the Opposition party's Aldona MLA, Carlos Ferreira-Alvares, recently.
On September 14, eight of the 11 Congress MLAs including the then Leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo, said they had split from the Congress and merged with the ruling BJP, a move which was in the offing after an earlier defection attempt in July fizzled out for lack of numbers following a rearguard action by AICC Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao.
The petitions filed by Chodankar and Noronha challenge the September 14 split in the Congress and the simultaneous merger with the BJP.
The anti-defection law (Xth Schedule of the Constitution) prohibits defections but has a proviso for a split in political parties by at least two-third of the number of legislators of a political party to merge with another.
Apart from Lobo, the other seven legislators of the group which split and merged with the BJP are: Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Sequeira, Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Phaldesai, Rudolf Fernandes and Sankalp Amonkar.
The development reduced the legislative strength of the Congress to just three but the party retained the Leader of the Opposition post which went to their Cuncolim MLA Yuri Alemao, by virtue of the party being the largest in the Opposition.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has two MLAs -- Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva -- while the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) has one each -- Vijai Sardesai and Viresh Borkar -- making up a total Opposition strength of seven in the 40-member legislature.
In the previous term of the Goa legislature, the Congress had also suffered a similar desertion by a chunk of 10 MLAs back in 2019. Then too Chodankar had filed disqualification petitions but they were dismissed by then Speaker Rajesh Patnekar citing the 2/3rd rule for split and merger.
Chodankar challenged the order before the High Court and subsequently the Supreme Court which is expected to take it up for hearing on November 17 where crucial technical matters related to whether the term "split" in a political party in the anti-defection law pertains merely to the legislative wing or also the organisational wing.
