Panaji: Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Girish Chodankar said on Tuesday that there exists “vacuum” in Ponda constituency and they don’t count Ravi Naik as their MLA anymore.
Naik’s sons – Reitesh and Roy – had formally joined BJP last month in presence of party Goa President Sadanand Shet Tanavade, Union AYUSH Minister Shripad Naik and others.
“Legally speaking, Ravi Naik remains to be Congress MLA. But we have stopped counting him as our legislator. There is vaccum for the party in Ponda Assembly constituency,” Chodankar said.
He said that the party will not wait Naik to take a decision six months prior to the next general election to quit the party. “We know that he will be quitting the Congress party as his both the sons are in BJP and he wont let them be there without him,” the GPCC chief said.
Congress currently has five MLAs in the Assembly after 13 of its MLAs left the party since 2017 to join BJP, including ten members who had left en-mass in July, 2019.
Naik was not available for his comments over the issue.
