MGP expels senior leader Mamlatdar

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) Saturday expelled its general secretary Lavoo Mamlatdar after he declared, in a letter to Speaker, that he was the sole authority to communicate on behalf of his party.

He was being expelled for six years for "anti-party activities", said the MGP, an ally of the ruling BJP in Goa.

He was MGP's MLA from Ponda from 2012 to 2017 before being defeated in the last election by Congress' Ravi Naik.

MGP chief Dipak Dhavalikar said the decision to expel Mamlatdar was taken by the party's Central Committee after it came to light that he had written a letter to the Assembly Speaker without taking the party into confidence.

The letter, sent Friday, informed that "official communication from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party will be addressed only by the undersigned General Secretary (Mamlatdar), duly authorised of and by the party".

"You are... requested to ignore any communication received from any other person...," it said.

Dhavalikar said the central committee, which met Saturday, tried to persuade Mamlatdar to withdraw it.

"Since Mamlatdar was adamant on his stand despite committee members trying to persuade him for two hours, it was resolved to expel him for six years for anti-party activities and indiscipline," the MGP president said.

The decision would be vetted during the general body meeting of the party on March 30, he said.

When contacted, Mamlatdar claimed that he wrote to the Speaker because some leaders in the party had planned to drop party MLA and tourism minister Manohar Ajgaonkar from the state cabinet and replace him with Dipak Pawaskar.

The plan was to remove Ajgaonkar by writing to the Speaker by keeping the central committee in dark, he alleged.

"I was expelled because I sabotaged their plan," he said, adding that he would move a court against the decision to expel him.

Dhavalikar said there was no such plan to replace Ajgaonkar.