The Congress party on Sunday confirmed that Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat -- two of its towering leaders in Goa -- had tried to engineer defections of Congress MLAs to BJP. The Congress party's Goa incharge, Dinesh Gundu Rao said the two leaders had been working in coordination with the BJP to affect the defections in order to weaken the party in the state. Rao said the BJP wanted to muster two-third of the Congress party's 11 MLAs, to evade the anti-defection law. Rao said the party has decided to sack Michael Lobo as the Leader of Opposition. He also said the BJP had offered money to its MLAs but they declined.
Dinesh Gundu Rao said that out of the 11 MLAs, the party has lost touch with five. These are: Lobo, Kamat, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo - have gone incommunicado. Five others were with the Congress, including Altone D'Costa, Sankalp Amonkar, Yuri Alemao, Carlose Alvares Ferreira and Rudolf Fernandes. The sixth MLA, Aleixo Sequeira is in touch with the Congress.
Who is Michael Lobo?
Michael Vincent Lobo, born in 1976, in Goa's Mapusa, is a Congress MLA from Calangute. He was the Leader of Opposition in Goa. Lobo was a BJP leader until January this year. He quit the party before the Goa Assembly elections. He is a Roman Catholic. His wife is also a Congress MLA, named Delialah Lobo.
Lobo was also the president of North Goa BJP. Michael Lobo had first contested the election from Calangute Vidhan Sabha on BJP ticket in 2012. He had defeated the Congress candidate by 1,857 votes. He resigned as the minister in the Pramod Sawant government on January 10, 2022. He later joined the Congress, along with his wife.
Lobo has been the chairperson of the North Goa Planning and Development Authority since 24 May 2012, which has jurisdiction over Panaji and Mapusa. In 2013 he had opposed the opening of India's first Playboy Club. The government had to withdraw permission given to the club to operate. He had said the club was tantamount to prostitution.
