THE GOAN NETWORK
PANAJI
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar on Thursday said prolonged judicial delays in deciding cases of illegal defections undermine constitutional safeguards, asserting that the Supreme Court must deliver a decisive interpretation of the Tenth Schedule.
Addressing a press conference, Chodankar said his petition challenging wholesale defections in Goa had remained pending before the Supreme Court for six years without a definitive ruling, warning that allowing such cases to remain unresolved defeats the very purpose of the anti-defection law.
"If illegal defections are allowed to drag on unresolved, constitutional safeguards lose their meaning," he said.
He was speaking in the presence of Congress Working Committee member and former Maharashtra minister Yashomati Thakur.
Chodankar said the party had maintained a zero-tolerance stance against political turncoats since 2020.
He also called for every political party to socially and electorally boycott defectors, stating that unprincipled defections had severely undermined Goa's political system.
Earlier, announcing the party's plans to intensify its campaign against defections, Chodankar said the Goa Congress would burn an effigy symbolising the 'Defection Asur' in Margao, drawing a parallel with the traditional burning of Narkasur effigies ahead of Diwali.
Meanwhile, Thakur, commenting on the anti-defection framework, said the Tenth Schedule needed to be made more stringent. However, she pointed out that even a stronger legal framework could be circumvented when institutions and oversight mechanisms were compromised.
The Congress leaders said the party would continue to raise the issue of political defections and demand accountability.
