THE GOAN NETWORK
MAPUSA: Stating he wasn’t aware of any agenda for a meeting by the party, Calangute MLA Michael Lobo on Wednesday said nobody had invited him to any meeting.
“Who is meeting whom, I don’t know. Nobody has called me so far. And I don’t know for what the meeting is called. Without an agenda, I will not attend the meeting,” Lobo said.
The Calangute MLA was responding to a query whether he was part of the “BJP group” which is supposed to meet today, November 8.
Lobo said it may be a meeting of some core committee members of the BJP but he was definitely not part of the meeting.
“They have not invited me. I want to make it very clear. I had only gone to see Babush (Mapusa MLA Francisco D’Souza) the other day because he came down to Goa after his treatment in the US,” he said.
Refusing to be drawn into a controversy, the Calangute MLA, however, said he found it a bit difficult to believe that former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who is a core committee member, was totally in the dark on Dayanand Sopte’s entry in the party.
“Parsekar is a two-time BJP president of Goa and both times, a government was formed in Goa. And then he was also the chief minister. You mean to say when the core committee took the decision to bring in Sopte, Parsekar was not present at the meeting? I am not in the core committee so I don’t understand their functioning. But looks like something is wrong somewhere,” Lobo said.
He said he could understand about Mahadev Naik since he was not part of core committee but Parsekar was the senior-most member of the core committee.
When questioned whether he sympathized with Laxmikant Parsekar, Mahadev Naik and Francisco D’Souza, Lobo said that in politics there was no sympathy.
“There is no sympathy in politics. If you can’t handle it, you have to resign and go. So many people sympathized with me because I was not made a minister. But I don’t regret. I was upset for some time. We have to carry on with our work,” Lobo said.
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Ex-BJP MLAs to meet today: Francis
MAPUSA: Former Urban Development Minister and Mapusa MLA Francisco D’Souza confirmed that a meeting of mostly former MLAs of BJP was scheduled to be held today (Thursday).
He also said he wasn’t the convenor of the meeting so therefore he wasn’t aware of any details about the meeting.
“It’s a meeting of mostly ex-MLAs although I will be an exception being an MLA,” D’Souza said.
He expressed ignorance whether any more MLAs will be part of the group that will be meeting to discuss issues.
“I am the current MLA. I don’t know if any other MLAs will be there,” he said.
He further said that the agenda will be decided when subsequent meetings are held.
