Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar has stated that he is aware of his MLAs being in talks with the BJP to join the party. As per reports, Chodankar’s response comes after a Congress MLA held a meeting with his party workers to know their response if he joins the BJP.
On Thursday, Congress MLA from Cuncolim, Clafasio Dias had held an informal meeting with his party workers asking for their approval to join the BJP.
The BJP, which is in power currently in Goa, has 17 MLAs while the Congress has 14. Chodankar alleged in a press conference in Margao that the BJP is huge amounts of money and political muscle to lure MLAs. “You will not believe how aggressively the BJP is using its power to target our MLAs.”
Chodankar added that it is difficult for MLAs t to resist the BJP’s pressure.
Chodankar added that in the last year, BJP has poached 2 MLAs from Congress and 2 from the MGP. When asked by the media that whether he can assure none of his MLAs will join the BJP, Chodankar stated that he cannot do so.
In 2018, 2 Congress MLAs, Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte had joined the BJP. 2 MLAs from the Maharshtravadi Gomantak Party had split the regional party and joined the BJP in March.
BJP’s state president Vinay Tendulkar had stated recently that 2 more Congress MLAs are likely to switch to BJP soon.