Valpoi Cong committee members quit in support of Ex-MLA Vishwajit Rane

Panaji: The block Congress committee members from Valpoi in North Goa have resigned in support of former party MLA Vishwajit Rane, who is slated to join the ruling BJP today.

Rane, who was elected from Valpoi constituency in the recently held state polls, had resigned from the Congress last month and quit his Assembly membership after absenting himself from the House when Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had sought the trust vote.

In his support, all Valpoi block Congress committee members, led by Laxmi Halwalkar, tendered their resignation from the primary membership of the party late last night.

"We, the Valpoi block Congress committee members are hereby submitting our resignation from the primary membership of the Congress with immediate effect as we have no faith in the leadership at the state and national level," reads the resignation letter, signed by all block members.

The members said that Congress, which emerged as the largest party in the recent Goa Assembly elections, failed to form the government and betrayed the real party workers.

"We are with our leader Vishwajit Rane, who has taken the right step to join BJP. We are fully convinced that his step is for the development of our constituency. We can't sit in the opposition for next five years," Halwalkar told PTI.

"We have full faith in him. We have seen his leadership qualities and the development work he has done in Sattari taluka," she said.

BJP's state unit president Vinay Tendulkar yesterday said that Rane would be joining the party today.

Rane had quit the Congress last month after being upset that the party failed to form the government in Goa despite it emerging as the single largest party winning 17 seats in the 40-member Assembly.

He is the son of Congress veteran and former Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane, who was also elected to the Assembly from Poriem seat in North Goa during the recent state polls.

In the trust vote held in the House last month, Parrikar proved his majority with 12 legislators from BJP, three from Goa Forward Party, three from Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, three Independents and one from NCP voting in favour of the trust motion.

The opposition benches included 16 MLAs from Congress, as Rane had remained absent during the voting.

After failing to defeat the trust motion, the Goa Congress said it would seek disqualification of Rane from contesting elections for defying its whip to vote against the motion.