The Congress in Goa claimed to have successfully thwarted the BJP from engineering defection in it, while state Congress president Amit Patkar filed a disqualification petition against alleged 'conspirators', former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and now former leader of Opposition Michael Lobo, both party legislators.
The petition has accused both Lobo and Kamat of carrying out anti-party activities.
“The petition is under scrutiny. There was an attempt by the BJP to engineer defection in the Congress, but it was unsuccessful," Patkar said, after meeting Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar for a preliminary hearing.
Abhijit Gosawi, a lawyer representing the Congress party, said that he has requested the Speaker to issue notices to Kamat and Lobo.
“Speaker held a preliminary hearing today. He heard us for some time. We have requested the speaker to issue notices to both MLA's,” Gosavi said.
Lobo has already been removed as the leader of the Congress legislature party as well as from the post of Leader of Opposition. The vacancy is yet to be filled by the party leadership.
On Sunday, All India Congress Committee's Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao had claimed that Kamat and Lobo were part of a conspiracy to engineer a split in the Congress party at the behest of the BJP.
The Congress currently has 11 MLAs and a two third split in its legislative unit would require eight MLAs. The split appeared to be on cards till late Sunday, but by evening, Congress had managed to pull together five legislators, which meant that the 'conspirators' did not have the required numbers.
Both Kamat and Lobo have denied any wrongdoing, adding that they were with the Congress party. "I have been with the Congress. I have a five-year term. I will complete it," Lobo said.