Former Goa minister Michael Lobo Joins Congress: Former minister in the Goa government Michael Lobo has joined the Congress on Tuesday after resigning from the post of minister. His wife Delilah Lobo has also joined the party with him.
Bharatiya Janata Party MLA from Calangute assembly seat, Lobo has also resigned as a member of the assembly. Lobo is considered to have a strong hold in North Goa. He defeated Congress candidate Joseph Robert Sequeira in the 2017 assembly elections.
A day ago, Lobo resigned from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as well as the legislative assembly. The state is scheduled to see election to the 40-seat Assembly on February 14.
Lobo, who represented the Calangute Assembly constituency and held charge of the state port and waste management departments, had submitted his resignation to the chief minister’s office and the Goa Assembly’s Speaker. At the time, he had said he was in talks with political parties about his next move.
“The voters told me that the BJP is no more a party of the common people,” he said, while claiming that the grass-root level workers were feeling ignored by the party.
A couple of hours later, Pravin Zantye, who represented the Mayem constituency in the Assembly, also tendered his resignation from the BJP and the state Assembly. Zantye said he had joined the BJP at the behest of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, and claimed that after the latter’s death, he was sidelined in the party.
On the other hand, another state minister and MLA Govind Goude also resigned from the membership of the assembly on Tuesday. He will join BJP. Gowde, an independent MLA from Priyol, has been supporting the BJP-led state government since 2017. He was a minister in the Manohar Parrikar government. He is also a minister in the Pramod Sawant government.
