Former Goa Congress MLAs reach Delhi, to meet BJP chief Amit Shah

A day after joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), ten former Goa Congress lawmakers will meet party president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah in the national capital today. According to reports, they are also expected to meet party working president JP Nadda. All the MLAs reached Delhi along with Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant today morning.

"The new MLAs will be meeting Amit Shah in Delhi at 10 a.m.," Sawant told reporters at Goa's Dabolim international airport, before heading for New Delhi.

The chief minister also clarified that no decision has been taken regarding dropping some ministers from its coalition partners to accommodate 10-newly joined Congress MLAs.

“No decision taken yet. The central leadership will take the decision regarding this,” Sawant said.

Earlier on Wednesday, ten Congress MLAs, led by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, broke away and merged into the BJP, increasing the saffron party's strength to 27 in the 40-seat house.

The Congress, which had emerged as a single-largest party after 2017 Assembly polls in the coastal state, is now reduced to five legislators.

Goa Forward Party (GFP) with its three MLAs, had extended support to the Manohar Parrikar-led government in the year 2017 and then the Pramod Sawant-led government in 2019.

The three GFP legislators are members of the Sawant-led cabinet. Apart from them, three Independent legislators are part of the government, of whom two are ministers.