'Knew these scumbags would...': Derek O'Brien lashes out as Goa Congress MLAs jump to BJP

Trinamool Congress MP Derek O'Brien uttered some harsh words in response to eight Congress MLAs jumping ship to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) earlier in the day. Taking to Twitter on Wednesday, O’Brien denounced the switch by the Congress members and urged the public of Goa to invest their trust in TMC instead. He even went on to call the defecting  MLAs “scumbags” claiming that he knew this would happen. 

"We knew exactly this would happen. We knew these scumbags would let you down", O'Brien tweeted. "TRUST GOA TMC. Goa we will always be there for you," he added.

Eight Congress MLAs turn rebels amid 'Bharat Jodo Yatra'

Amid the Congress' ambitious 'Bharat Jodo Yatra', eight members, including former Goa CM Digambar Kamat, ironically dumped the grand-old-party. Others who joined Kamat are Michael Lobo, his wife Delilah Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Phaldesai, Aleixo Sequeira, Sankalp Amonkar and Rodolfo Fernandes. While the BJP now has 28 members in the 40-seat state assembly, opposition leader Congress is now left with just three seats after losing one-third of its MLAs.

According to PTI, Goa CM Pramod Sawant revealed that the MLAs have joined the party without any condition and that no plans of cabinet reshuffling have been made as of now. On the other hand, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) launched potshots at Congress as well as the BJP's 'Operation Lotus.' 

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal alleged that the BJP is carrying out 'Operation Lotus' in every state and reiterated his claim on the latter's alleged attempt to poach AAP members for Rs 25 crore each. "They are running Operation Lotus for every state. They are buying MLAs in every state. Obviously, they are not buying MLAs for free. They scare them with CBI and ED. We learned that in Punjab, they tried to poach MLAs with Rs 25 crore," Kejriwal said.

AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Raghav Chadha tweeted that the reason why 'Operation Lotus' succeeded in Goa is because voting for Congress is like electing a "future BJP MLA."