New Delhi Mar 30 PTI Congress leader P Chidambaram and AICC in-charge for Goa Dinesh Gundu Rao met former party chief Rahul Gandhi at his residence here on Wednesday and are learnt to have discussed the restructuring of the organisationParty sources said the leaders have discussed the appointment of the Congress Legislature Party leader in the new Goa AssemblyThe Congress failed to wrest power from the Bharatiya Janata Party BJP in the recently-held Assembly polls in the coastal state Party chief Sonia Gandhi had asked the Pradesh Congress Committee PCC chiefs in the five states that went to polls including Goa to tender their resignationsThe party is set to revamp its Goa unit and appoint a new president to it after Girish Chodankar resigned PTI SKC RC

Panaji Feb 24 PTI The Goa bench of the Bombay High Court on Thursday upheld the Goa Assembly Speakers order dismissing two petitions seeking disqualification of 12 MLAs who left their respective parties and joined the ruling BJP in 2019 Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Girish Chodankar had filed a disqualification petition against 10 party MLAs who switched over to the BJP in July 2019 Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar had also filed a similar petition before the court against its two MLAs who joined the BJP in the same year by splitting the regional party Goa Assembly Speaker Rajesh Patnekar had on April 20 last year dismissed the disqualification petitions filed by Chodankar and Dhavalikar On Thursday a division bench of Justices Manish Pitale and R N Laddha said the two petitions stand dismissed The petitioners have not been able to make out a case for interference in the impugned orders passed by the Speaker the HC said We hold the disqualification petitions filed by the petitioners were correctly dismissed by the Speaker the bench said The court also said that the order passed by the Speaker rejecting the disqualification petitions cannot be said to be militating against the object of introduction of the Tenth Schedule of the Constitution on the touchstone of political and constitutional morality Chodankar had in his petition filed before the Speaker pleaded that all the 10 MLAs deserved to be declared as disqualified from holding membership of their original party the Indian National Congress thereby attracting disuqualification under the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution The MGP too had filed the petition on the same ground Senior lawyer Vivek Tankha appearing on behalf of Chodankar had pleaded before the HC that the Speaker erred in interpreting paragraph four of the Constitutions Tenth Schedule He had argued that the Schedule contemplates twin test for arriving at a conclusion regarding merger of the original political party According to Tanka such a merger would be complete and protect a House member from being disqualified when there was a merger of the original political party and two-third members of the legislature party agreed with such a merger He argued that the twin test is contemplated in the Tenth Schedule to ensure that objects and reasons for introducing the Tenth Schedule to the Constitution by the 52th Amendemnt to the Constitution in 1985 were achieved In the 2017 polls to the 40-member Goa Assembly the Congress emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats while the BJP had bagged 13 seats The BJP then quickly forged an alliance with some regional outfits and independents to form government in the state Over the last five years a number of Congress MLAs quit the party reducing its strength in the House to two Polls to elect the new 40-member Goa Assembly were held on February 14 this year and the counting was votes will be done on March 10 PTI RPS GK GK

Panaji Nov 20 PTI Goa Forward Party GFP working president Kiran Kandolkar quit the party on Saturday in protest against a possible alliance with the Congress in the upcoming Assembly polls and joined the Trinamool Congress Kandolkar was welcomed in TMC by the party MP Mahua Moitra and TMC national vice president Luizinho Faleiro Kandolkar a former BJP MLA had joined GFP in 2020 Incidentally he was declared the GFP candidate from the Aldona seat for the Assembly polls scheduled early next year But the Congress has already started campaigning there I feel Congress will ditch the Vijai Sardesai-led party at the last minute I feel that parties like Congress and AAP are not serious about defeating BJP he told reporters Kandolkar said the Mamata Banerjee -led party is only capable of defeating the BJP in the next years polls Rahul Gandhi or Arvind Kejriwal cant defeat Narendra Modi But Mamata Banerjee has shown in West Bengal that she can fight back and hand BJP a drubbing he added In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls the Congress had won the highest 17 seats in the 40-member House restricting the BJP at 13 However the BJP allied with regional parties- GFP and MGP- to form a government under the late Manohar Parrikar PTI RPS BNM NSK NSK