Senior Congress leader and former Goa Chief Minister Digambar Kamat has been removed from his current position of being a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), the party announced on Sunday.
The move comes a day after the Congress moved five of its 11 MLAs to Chennai to keep its flock together before the Presidential polls on July 18.
"Hon'ble Congress President has removed Shri Digambar Kamat from his current position as Permanent lnvitee to Congress Working Committee with immediate effect, "party general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal said in a statement.
The Congress had accused Mr. Kamat and former Goa Leader of the Opposition Michael Lobo as leaders who were trying to split its Legislative party by engineering defections of MLAs to the ruling party.
The five MLAs who were moved by the Congress to Chennai include Sankalp Amonkar, Yuri Alemao, Altone D’Costa, Rudolf Fernandes and Carlose Alvares Ferreira.
Apart from Mr. Kamat and Mr. Lobo, four other Congress MLAs including Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Aleixo Sequeira and Rajesh Faldesai did not go with the rest.
On July 10, the Congress had removed Mr. Lobo from the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, accusing him and Mr. Kamat of conspiring against the party and “hobnobbing with the BJP”.
