india

Updated: Feb 19, 2019 18:57 IST

Former Goa Congress president Luizinho Faleiro reopened old wounds and accused Digvijaya Singh, then in-charge of the state of scuttling the party’s chances to form government and allowing the BJP to steal the mandate despite the losing the election. The Congress had emerged as the single-largest party in 2017 Goa assembly elections.

Faleiro, who was the state Congress president at the time of the elections, said Singh preferred to wait rather than rushing to the governor with the letters of support the Congress had.

“That night… general secretary Digvijaya Singh did not allow me to hand over the letter to the Governor for the formation of the Congress government,” Faleiro said.

“In protest, I resigned from the Pradesh Congress Committee. They had promised that they would form the government in 24 hours now. Twenty-four months have passed (since then),” Faleiro said.

His comments come at a time when rumours are flowing thick and fast that the state cabinet may recommend dissolving the state assembly in order to hold assembly elections simultaneously with the Lok Sabha polls in a bid to capitalise on the nationwide campaign.

The Congress emerged the single largest party with 17 members in the 40 member house, but was pipped to the post by the BJP, which hastily cobbled together a coalition of parties despite winning only 13 seats.

However, state minister Vijay Sardesai said that the issue of dissolution of the state assembly did not figure in the cabinet meeting held on Monday.

“It is the media which is writing about dissolution. The political reality of the moment is how many people (MLAs) can afford dissolution? I had (raised the issue in a previous cabinet meeting). He cleared it then,” Sardesai said.

The Congress is no longer the single largest party and the strength of the house has now been reduced to 37 after the death of the Mapusa MLA Francis D’Souza. Earlier, two Congress MLAs quit to join the BJP late last year.

Bypolls to these three assembly constituencies could significantly alter the political equation in Goa.