Cong to decide on LoP in Goa Assembly: Kamat

The Congress high command will take a decision on appointing the new leader of opposition in the Goa Assembly, party MLA Digambar Kamat said on Tuesday.

The Congress suffered a major setback in Goa last week when its 10 MLAs, including the then Leader of the Opposition (LoP) Chandrakant Kavlekar, joined the BJP.

The Congress, which emerged as the single-largest party after the 2017 Assembly polls in the coastal state, is now reduced to five legislators.

The monsoon session of the Goa Assembly began on Monday with the chair of LoP remaining vacant.

Kamat told reporters outside the Assembly complex on Tuesday that Congress' Goa in-charge A Chellakumar has met the five legislators and gone to New Delhi.

"A decision on the new leader of the opposition will be announced from New Delhi," the former chief minister said.

After the 10 Congress MLAs joined the BJP, four of them were inducted into the Pramod Sawant-led state cabinet.

Kavlekar was designated as the deputy chief minister and given charge of the town and country planning, agriculture, archives and archaeology, and factories and boilers departments.