PANAJI
Defector MLAs should be made to take VRS by the voters, just like inefficient government servants are made to opt for the severance package, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat said on Sunday.
"Those who have left, should never come back into politics. This is all in your hands. Send them permanently home. Just like government servants can be given VRS if they do not work, just like that they should be given VRS and made to sit at home," Kamat said, while addressing a party block meeting at the St Andre assembly constituency.
Kamat also said that the party was confident of winning the St. Andre seat in the 2022 polls.
"St Andre is not anybody's father's seat. It is a Congress seat," Kamat said.
Speaking at the event All India Congress Committee in-charge of Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao also said that, while defection had hit the party morale, the party had taken a decision to close its doors permanently to defecting MLAs.
"Defection has hit Congress party morale. It is for money that all these defectors left the Congress. To become ministers, to become chairmans, to make more money, to enjoy power. In Goa, the Congress should create a situation that such kind of people should not be allowed, should not be tolerated, and that is why very clearly we have told that none of these defectors will be taken back in the Congress ever. There is no entry for them. Our doors are closed for them," Rao said.
"Because if we take them back then what do we stand for? What is our morality? What happens to our principles? We have taken that decision, that none of the people who have defected, betrayed us, left the party, they will not find any place in the Congress again. Whether we win or lose that is another issue," Rao also said.
Since the 2017 assembly election results were declared, as many as 13 Congress MLAs have joined the BJP in three tranches. The first to join the BJP was current Health Minister Vishwajit Rane, who joined the ruling outfit days after the results were declared. The next to quit the Congress were Mandrem MLA Dayanad Sopte and Shiroda MLA Subhash Shirodkoar in 2018, followed by then Leader of Opposition Babu Kavlekar splitting the party with 10 MLAs and merging the breakaway unit with the ruling BJP.
