• Eight Goa Congress MLAs join BJP in presence of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, reports PTI

Eight Congress MLAs in Goa, including former chief minister Digambar Kamat, are set to join the ruling BJP, in a body blow to the Opposition party which will be left with just three MLAs in the 40-member state Assembly.

"The eight MLAs are joining us," state Bharatiya Janata Party chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade told PTI on Wednesday.

The eight Congress MLAs Kamat, Michael Lobo, Delilah Lobo, Rajesh Phaldesai, Kedar Naik, Sankalp Amonkar, Aleixo Sequeira and Rudolf Fernandes were seen interacting with CM Pramod Sawant in a viral photo after a resolution was passed in the Congress Legislature party to merge with the BJP.

The BJP retained power in the coastal state after the state Assembly elections in March this year. It has 20 MLAs in the Assembly, while the Congress' strength is set to be depleted from 11 to three.

Earlier on Wednesday, the Goa Congress Legislature Party passed a resolution to merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party. Leader of Opposition Michael Lobo moved the resolution in the presence of seven other MLAs.

The resolution was seconded by former chief minister and MLA Digambar Kamat, sources said.

Prior to this development, the Congress had 11 legislators in the 40-member Goa Assembly and the BJP had 20.

Anti-defection law bypassed

Now, since eight MLAs have broken away as a group — two thirds of the party strength — they can avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law.

In a similar move in July 2019, 10 Congress MLAs had switched over to the BJP.

Wednesday's developments mean that the Goa Congress has fallen victim to another instance of "Operation Lotus," something it had managed to avert months earlier.

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.

When Kamat stayed away

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.

Leaders incommunicado

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 Opposition 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.

'Don't ask all questions now'

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 leader of the Opposition because I would not be able to do justice to the post," he said.