Ex-Goa CM Ravi Naik Resigns As Cong MLA, Party’s Strength Down To 3
Mumbai: Former Goa CM Ravi Naik on Tuesday resigned from the state Assembly and also as a primary member of Congress. With his resignation, Congress’ strength in the Assembly has been reduced to three.
In October this year, former Goa Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro had resigned as a Congress MLA and later joined the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.
With Naik’s resignation, the strength of the Congress has come down to three in the 40-member state assembly.
Naik, who represents the Ponda seat in Goa, submitted his resignation to Speaker Rajesh Patnekar.
He was accompanied by his two sons, who had joined the ruling BJP last year.
I have resigned. “I will tell you what the next course of action is,” Naik told reporters here after submitting his resignation.
According to sources, Naik is expected to join the BJP later in the day in the presence of the party’s Goa election in-charge of Devendra Fadnavis.
Ravi Naik’s younger son Roy Naik said he has requested his father to join the BJP.
In the 2017 state assembly elections, Congress emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats. However, the BJP, which won 13 seats, allied with some regional organizations and independent candidates to form the government in the coastal state.
Since then, many Congress MLAs have left the party and joined BJP.
The biggest setback for the Goa Congress came in July 2019, when a group of its 10 MLAs, led by then Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, quit the party.
Kavlekar is currently serving as deputy chief minister in the Pramod Sawant-led state government.
At present, the Congress has only three MLAs in the state – Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, Aleixo Reginaldo (representing Curtorim Assembly seat) and Pratapsingh Rane (from Poriem seat).
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