Go Goa Gone: From 17 MLAs to 2 - Congress' desertion blues

When the 2017 Assembly elections were held in Goa, the Congress had put up a good show by emerging as the single largest party with 17 seats in the 40-member House. But it failed to form the government and could also not keep its flock together. Its strength is now reduced to just two.

However, the party is still trying to put up a strong face ahead of the Assembly polls due early next year, saying it is not deterred by the desertions.

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On Monday, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee's working president Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco became the latest MLA to quit the party over the last five years.

Notably, his name had figured in the first list of eight candidates announced by the Congress last week for the forthcoming state polls.

The biggest jolt to the Congress came in 2019 when a group of its 10 MLAs, led by the leader of opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, left the party together and joined the ruling BJP.

This year, as the next Assembly election draws closer, more MLAs quit Congress one after the other.

Following the 2017 Assembly polls, Vishwajit Rane, Goa's current health minister, was the first to resign from Congress as well as from the Assembly soon after taking oath as an MLA.

After him, two other MLAs – Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte – also resigned from the party.

All the three were later re-elected in by-elections on the BJP's ticket.

Recently, Luizinho Faleiro and Ravi Naik, both former chief ministers, also left the Congress. Faleiro joined the TMC and Naik went to BJP

The party is now left with only Pratapsingh Rane and Digambar Kamat, both of whom are also former CMs.

On Tuesday, the Aam Aadmi Party's national convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a dig at the Goa Congress, saying, "Fifteen are sold, only two are remaining.”

However, Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat has remained unfazed and expressed confidence that he will lead the Congress to a thumping victory in the 2022 state polls and that his party will form the government.