PANAJI
After making headlines for being on the verge of quitting the BJP for months now, Calangute MLA and Ports Minister Michael Lobo continues to make headlines now over the possibility of joining the Congress party.
State Congress president Girish Chodankar on Saturday said that Lobo had neither applied for a membership of the party nor had he met the Calangute MLA over moves to join his outfit, a day after Lobo, put out a cryptic message hinting at a calm before the storm on his social media handle.
“I know that he is the minister in the BJP cabinet and he was a member of BJP and he was elected on a BJP ticket. That much I know about Michael Lobo. I am only hearing and reading about it in newspapers,” Chodankar told reporters after a meeting of the Congress election coordination committee which was held here on Saturday.
“I have not met him or have any application pending before us. If there is an application pending we just forward it to the High Command,” Chodankar said.
On Friday, a meeting of the Calangute block of the Congress chaired by Congress senior observer for the state polls P Chidambaram had witnessed a flare-up, with resident Congress workers opposing Lobo’s entry into the party ahead of the 2022 polls.
The resistance followed soon after former Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes and former Calangute sarpanch Joseph Sequeira warned the party leadership against Lobo’s speculated moves to join the Congress.
Chodankar, however, said that candidature for the assembly polls would be decided by active members of the block themselves and that no candidate would be foisted on them.
“P Chidambaram and Dinesh Gundu Rao are visiting various blocks to listen to Congress workers. Our leaders are trying to empower blocks... One of the speakers (at the Calangute Congress block) had raised the issue of Michael Lobo and our leaders have responded to them,” Chodankar told reporters on Saturday.
Chidambaram told party workers in Calangute to recommend names of potential candidates and added that no candidate would be imposed on them, a rationale which appeared to have quelled any possibility of a ‘rebellion’ by Fernandes and Sequeira for now.
“It is the block which has to take a call on shortlisting of the candidates. They will recommend and they will be consulted while finalising a candidate. That is what the blocks (Calangute and Panaji) were told,” Chodankar also said.
When asked about the overt support expressed by Lobo to Sudhir Kandolkar, the Congress’ official candidate for the Mapusa assembly bypolls in 2019, Chodankar said, for a political party, support from all corners was welcome.
“As I told you, many BJP workers want to defeat BJP. And many of them want to support our candidate. It is welcome. Many BJP workers in touch with me are fed up with the BJP. They are ignored. Entire BJP leadership is focussing on corruption,” Chodankar said.
Over the last few weeks, Lobo has been creating a band of potential candidates for the assembly seats in Bardez, which includes his wife Delilah (Siolim) and Kandolkar (Mapusa).
