Eight of the 11 Congress MLAs in the Goa Assembly defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party, led by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, on Wednesday.
The ruling party has succeeded in splitting the Congress twice in three years in the State, this time despite the loyalty pledges that all 37 Congress candidates took ahead of the February Assembly election in the presence of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a temple, a dargah and a church vowing not to defect to other parties regardless of the poll result.
In a sudden turn of events, the coastal State witnessed another bout of political musical chairs as the eight Congress legislators — two-thirds of the party’s strength in the Assembly — moved to the BJP in a replay of the defections in 2019.
