Goa Congress legislator Vishwajit Rane (pictured above, standing) on Thursday resigned from the party after the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Manohar Parrikar won the trust vote in the state assembly, ANI reported. Rane was absent during the crucial floor test, bringing the Congress’ MLAs in the House to 16.
“With a heavy heart today I submitted my resignation today as the member of Congress party. It makes me sad,” Rane told ANI. The newly-elected MLA had been upset for the last few days with Congress’ lack of urgency in forming the government in Goa despite winning the most number of seats.
“Leaders like me will start leaving Congress all over the country because people who come as observers are unable to assess the situation,” he said. Rane said he had not received any reply from Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi. “Don’t want to comment on him,” he quipped. Rane did not rule out joining Bharatiya Janata Party after resigning from the Congress, reported NDTV.
Congress Legislature Party leader Chandrakant Kavlekar on Thursday said the party would first try to find out why Rane had remained absent during the Assembly session. Kavlekar said Rane had taken oath as an MLA in the House and had signed the Congress whip after which he left the Assembly. “We are trying to reach him to elicit an explanation,” Kavlekar told Scroll.in.
The BJP won the trust vote on Thursday with 22 MLAs, including 13 BJP legislators, supported Manohar Parrikar for the chief minister’s post. Parrikar had been sworn in on Tuesday, along with nine other ministers.
The vote comes as a massive blow to the Congress, which had won more seats in the state than the BJP. The Congress had 17 seats, against BJP’s 13, but had not managed to cobble together an alliance to reach the halfway mark.
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