PANAJI
With the resignation of former chief minister Ravi Naik from the Congress party and as Ponda MLA, the Congress which enjoyed the status of being the single largest party with 17 MLAs five years ago has now been reduced to a mere three legislators.
Having lost 14 of its 17 legislators in the last five years, only three MLAs -- Digambar Kamat, Pratapsing Rane and Reginaldo Lourenco -- are left in the Congress.
Valpoi Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane was the first MLA to leave the Congress and join BJP under the leadership of then chief minister late Manohar Parrikar in 2017.
In 2018, Congress MLAs Dayanand Sopte and Subhash Shirodkar also ditched the Congress and joined the BJP.
Then in July 2019, Congress suffered a major setback when 10 of its MLAs switched loyalties to BJP.
The MLAs, Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar, Babush Monserrate, Jennifer Monserrate, Filipe Nery Rodrigues, Isidore Fernandes, Francis Silveira, Nilkanth Halarnkar, Clafacio Dias, Wilfred D'Sa and Tony Fernandes joined the BJP.
Recently, Navelim MLA Luizinho Faleiro resigned from the Congress to join the TMC.
