Congress MLA Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco termed the mass defection of his party legislators to BJP as "political prostitution". Winds of political instability in neighbouring Karnataka reached Goa Wednesday, with two- thirds (10 out of 15) of Congress MLAs breaking away to merge with the ruling BJP in the coastal state.
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Led by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, 10 of the 15 Congress MLAs in Goa joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The MLAs include Atanasio Monserratte, Jeniffer Monserratte, Francis Silveira, Philip Nery Rodrigues, Cleaofacio Dias, Wilfred Dsa, Nilkant Halarnkar and Isidor Fernandes. Lourenco is among the five MLAs left in the Congress, which had emerged as the single largest party after the 2017 assembly poll
"What has happened this time is political prostitution. We cannot talk about it," he told reporters in Margao after meeting Goa Forward Party (GFP) president and Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai.
He said his meeting with Sardesai was "casual".
Sardesai and two other ministers from his party may be dropped from the state cabinet to accommodate rebel Congress MLAs who have joined the BJP, sources said.
"Everyone meets a person when he is in power. I am meeting him when he is not," Lourenco said, referring to speculation about the fate of Sardesai and the two other GFP legislators who are presently members of the cabinet.
After the merger of the breakaway Congress MLAs, the BJP's strength in the 40-member assembly has gone up to 27.
-Inputs from PTI
Sources said four new ministers would be sworn-in Saturday.
