Goa Politics: Congress LoP Michael Lobo, wife Delilah, could join BJP this week

PANAJI: While the monsoon may be a few days away, things seem to be definitely hotting up on the political scenario in the coastal state of Goa.

Sources claim Congress Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Michael Lobo, his wife Siolim MLA Delilah Lobo and protégé Kedar Naik who is the MLA of Saligao, all from North Goa, may be joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)  as early as this week.

While Lobo is keen to join the BJP, apparently to save himself from legal action, including arrest, for illegal land zone conversions during his reign as the North Goa PDA chairman, his wife and Naik are likely to follow him into the saffron party.

The BJP does not seem too keen to take back Lobo who ditched the party a month before the Assembly polls, but Lobo’s offer of 4 other Congress MLAs joining along with him may be difficult to resist even for the BJP which is otherwise comfortably placed in the State with 20  MLAs of its own and 5 others supporting the BJP government led by the CM Dr Pramod Sawant.

Lobo is trying his best to rope in at least 7 to 8 Congress MLAs to avoid re-election, but that may not be possible at the moment.

Sources claim besides his wife and Kedar Naik, two other Congress MLAs have agreed to follow him into the BJP.