Stopped counting Ravi Naik as Cong MLA: Chodankar

Panaji: Congress has stopped counting Ponda MLA Ravi Naik as a party MLA, said state Congress president Girish Chodankar on Monday after Naik said that Chodankar had failed to strengthen the party at the grassroots-level.

Chodankar said the party disowned the former chief minister after both his sons joined BJP.

“In the assembly Ravi Naik is a Congress MLA but we have stopped counting him as our legislator,” said Chodankar.

The public spat began after Naik blamed Chodankar and opposition leader Digambar Kamat for not doing enough to strengthen Congress and take on BJP.

“The party’s organisation is not good,” said Naik. “Girish Chodankar, the president of the party, is not building the party. The root-level organisation has collapsed.”

Naik met chief minister Pramod Sawant on Monday evening to reportedly follow up with ongoing works and proposed projects in his constituency. Speculation is rife that Naik will follow his sons into BJP before the next assembly polls and Chodankar himself has said that Naik is close to BJP.

Naik said that Kamat has failed to highlight the inefficiency of the BJP-led government and that Congress has failed to call a meeting of all of its five MLAs.