PANAJI: In a serious jolt to Congress’s bid to form the government in Goa, two of its MLAs resigned and joined BJP—a development that comes as a boost to the saffron party and deprives Congress of its single largest party status in the assembly.With the resignation of the two Congress MLAs, Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar , Congress’s strength in the 40-member assembly has been reduced to 14, bringing it on par with BJP. Top BJP sources said the exodus from Congress may continue with two more MLAs waiting in line to join the party.In a pre-planned move, Sopte and Shirodkar, who left for Delhi late on Monday night, met BJP national president Amit Shah on Tuesday before they resigned. Later in the evening, the two joined BJP in the presence of Union ministers Piyush Goel and Shripad Naik, state party president Vinay Tendulkar and health minister Vishwajit Rane. Rane, who played a key role in winning over the MLAs, is a top contender to succeed chief minister Manohar Parrikar if a decision on his replacement needs to be taken.Sources said the BJP’s move to get the two from Congress was planned long ago and executed now due to political exigency in view of Parrikar’s health. It was done to prevent facing a constitutional crisis, a BJP source said, adding that the party would have been in trouble had Congress been invited to form the government on the grounds of it being the single largest party.As reported by TOI on Monday, the BJP’s plan was to ensure that Congress was not the single largest party and that there would be stability in the ruling coalition.Before joining BJP, the two resigned their membership of the Goa assembly.“I have received fax from both the Congress MLAs of their resignation, I have taken a confirmation on phone and accepted their resignation,” Goa speaker Pramod Sawant told TOI. Bypolls will be held in Mandrem and Shiroda constituencies within six months,It was ‘ghar wapasi’ for Sopte, who was the giant killer in the last assembly elections when he defeated the then chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar of BJP by over 7,000 votes in Mandrem. Shirodkar is a long-time Congressman having been a minister in past governments and its state unit president.“We have not been offered anything by BJP. We joined because we want to develop our constituencies and solve the problems of our people,” Shirodkar and Sopte told TOI from Delhi.Sopte and Shirdokar said besides the development of their constituencies, the state issues were also on their back of mind while taking decision which included mining and unemployment.“For the past 18 months, Congress, which has four former chief ministers did not come to an agreement as to who should lead the party and try and form the government. They were not interested in any development,” they said.The two said that if the mining issue had to be resolved, it could be done only by the Centre and with BJP governing both, they were confident that a solution would be found. “Once the mining issue is resolved, then the unemployment problem will also be solved,” they said.Sopte also said he was hopeful that the long-pending speed governor issue of taxi owners would be resolved.They also rubbished Congress’s allegation that they were lured by money. “We have been in politics for many years and nobody can point fingers at us,” they said.With the resignation of Mandrem MLA Sopte and Shiroda representative Shirodkar, the House strength has also been reduced to 38. While BJP has 14 MLAs, its alliance partners—Maharahstrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and Goa Forward Party (GFP)—have three each, with three independents supporting the Parrikar-led government.In eventuality of a floor test, even if the three ailing BJP MLAs—chief minister Manohar Parrikar, Francis D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar—fail to make it to the House, the BJP-led coalition would still have 20 members.

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