Eight Congress MLAs from Goa are set to join the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, state BJP chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade told PTI on Wednesday.

They are learnt to have met the Vidhan Sabha Speaker, according to media reports, fuelling speculation that the crisis in the Congress has resurfaced.The MLAs' meeting with the Speaker is unusual as the Assembly is not in session. Sources said there was no clarity yet on the agenda yet.

If eight MLAs break away as a group — two thirds of the party strength — they can avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law.

In the 40-member Goa Assembly, the Congress has 11 legislators and the BJP has 20.

In a similar move in July 2019, 10 Congress MLAs had switched over to the BJP. Wednesday's claims mean that the Goa Congress is now faced with a fresh crisis.

On July 11, senior Congress leader Mukul Wasnik chaired a meeting with all leaders, including the disgruntled ones, and managed to avert a split in the party.

Ten out of the total 11 Congress MLAs in Goa attended that meeting. Except former chief minister Digambar Kamat, all other Congress MLAs, including Michael Lobo, were present on the night of the meeting that went on for over two hours at the state party headquarters.

Congress Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao and state party president Amit Patkar were also present at the meeting.

Wasnik claimed some people with bad intentions were trying to create a rift in the Goa Congress, but the legislators scuttled it by showing they are united.

He said during the meeting, discussions were held with the MLAs on how to work aggressively in the House and strengthen the party in the coastal state.

A day before (July 10), five Congress MLAs, including Kamat and Lobo, went incommunicado. They, however, attended the Goa Assembly proceedings on the first day of its monsoon session and claimed there was nothing wrong and that they were with the party.

The Congress had accused Lobo and Kamat of "conspiring and hobnobbing" with the ruling BJP to engineer a split in the grand old party's legislative wing.

The party also removed Lobo from the post of leader of Oopposition in the 40-member Assembly.

After some of the Congress Legislature Party members did not attend a press conference called by Rao, Patkar filed a disqualification petition against Kamat and Lobo before Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar.

Asked if the disqualification petition would be withdrawn, Wasnik was then evasive. "You don't ask all the questions now, let us keep something for later," he said.

After the meeting on July 11, Lobo told reporters that he was with the Congress and there was a misunderstanding by the party as he could not attend the press conference called the day before.

"All the Congress MLAs are with the party. I had told them that I didn't want to continue as the leader of Oopposition because I would not be able to do justice to the post," he said.