In what can be seen as fresh trouble for the Congress party, 10 out of its 15 MLAs from Goa shifted loyalties and merged with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in a quick turn of events. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant welcomed all the MLAs.
Pramod Sawant said, ’10 out of total 15 Congress MLAs, along with their Opposition Leader, have merged with the BJP. They all have not put forward any condition and have joined BJP for the development The strength of the BJP has now risen to 27.
‘The MLAs will meet Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP Working President JP Nadda today. They have supported me to strengthen the state government and I welcome it’, said Chief Minister on Thursday.
Responding to a query about Cabinet berth to any Congress Lawmaker, Sawant said that no decision has been made yet. ‘The central leadership will take the decision regarding this’, he said as quoted by ANI.
Goa CM Pramod Sawant on being asked whether BJP will drop any minister from its coalition partners to accommodate 10-newly joined Congress MLAs: No decision taken yet. The central leadership will take the decision regarding this pic.twitter.com/q2dd6BlT9O
— ANI (@ANI) July 11, 2019
With the quick turn of events, Congress is now left with just 5 MLAs in the state where it was the single largest party after 2017 Assembly polls.
The lawmakers who split away from the Congress and joined BJP are Babu Kavalekar, Babush Monserratte, his wife Jennifer Monserrate, Tony Fernandes, Francis Silveira, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Clafasio, Wilfred De Sa, Nilkant Halankar and Isidore Fernandes.
All the MLAs met the Speaker along with Chief Minister and submitted the memorandum of the merger.
This comes on the backdrop when the Congress is facing trouble in Karnataka after 10 MLAs from the coalition government tendered their resignation giving a jolt to Congress-JD(S) Karnataka Government.
Last month, a group of 12 Congress MLAs quit the party in Telangana and merged it with the ruling TRS in the Telangana Assembly. After the merger episode, Congress is left with 6 MLAs and is now no more a second largest party as Asaduddin Owaisi‘s AIMIM have 7 Legislators in the Telangana Assembly.
ALSO READ:
- Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat hails government; claims 910 out of 1641 projects completed
- Rahul Gandhi visits his erstwhile Lok Sabha constituency Amethi; first time after poll Setback
- Opposition Parties give Zero Hour Notice in Rajya Sabha over different Issues