MARGAO
Where exactly are the five Congress MLAs from Goa putting up at Chennai and what is the objective behind the party’s decision to fly them to the Southern State on Friday evening?
The Goan understands that the five MLAs -- Carlos Alvares, Sankalp Amonkar, Yuri Alemao, Altone D’Costa and Rudolf Fernandes -- are being put up at the Taj resort in Chennai city. They have been provided with swanky cars, with reports saying the vehicles sport the Congress party flags.
Not taking any chances even though Tamil Nadu is being ruled by the DMK, a member of the Congress-led UPA said, armed security guards are reportedly keeping a close vigil at the hotel to ensure that the MLAs are not approached by anyone and neither are they harmed.
In a city which plays host to the Tomb of St Thomas, one of the 12 disciples of Lord Jesus, and who had come to India to spread the Good News, the five MLAs, sources said, are believed to have visited the Tomb and offered prayers at the Church.
Since they had no engagements in the city, sources said a couple of MLAs visited some places on Saturday evening.
Sources said the High Command through Goa desk in-charge, Dinesh Gundu Rao is coordinating with the visit of the MLAs to ensure that all goes on well during their stay in Chennai.
Sources in the know informed that the five MLAs are scheduled to return to Goa by the Sunday evening. It could not be, however, confirmed whether the five will stay together in a hotel or will go to
their respective residences after landing at the Dabolim airport.
An MLA pointed out that they have been shifted to Chennai to ensure that the eight member group of MLAs does not quit the party to embrace the Saffron brigade on the eve of the Presidential elections. “A two-third split will come as a big embarrassment for the party at the national level, more so when the Presidential elections are scheduled on Monday”, the MLA told The Goan.
PANAJI REPORTER ADDS: The other six MLAs of the party -- Michael Lobo, his wife Delilah, Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Sequeira, Kedar Naik and Rajesh Faldesai -- are in Goa with the former arriving in the State from Mumbai on Saturday morning.
Meanwhile functionaries of the Congress party including GPCC president, Amit Patkar and his predecessor Girish Chodankar have for the last few days been alleging that the ruling party is prying on their MLAs with lucrative offers.
On the eve of the ongoing monsoon session of the legislature which began on July 11, the Congress party barely survived an internal mutiny in its legislative wing.
Its central observer Dinesh Gundu Rao had claimed on record then that it was an internal sabotage by its top two leaders -- Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat -- who sought to engineer the coup and get a group of 8-9 MLAs to crossover in cahoots with the ruling BJP.
After Gundu Rao's weekend fire-fighting efforts, the Congress had also deputed its senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Mukul Wasnik to oversee the damage-control efforts. Wasnik had held one-on-one meetings with 10 of the 11 MLAs (barring Kamat) and claimed the situation was normal before leaving.
The party nevertheless removed Lobo as Opposition leader and also filed disqualification pleas before Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar against him and Kamat, accusing them of voluntarily giving up membership of the party with their anti-party activities.
On the record, both Lobo and Kamat, have denied any wrongdoing and claim they are very much in the Congress.
With reports widespread that some of the Congress MLAs are still in constant touch with the BJP, the voting for the Presidential poll on Monday will be keenly watched for cross-voting if any.
