Goa Assembly Speaker accepts merger of Goa Congress Legislature into BJP

New Delhi: Goa Assembly Speaker Ramesh Tawadkar on Thursday said he had accepted the merger of the state Congress Legislature Party (CLP) into the ruling BJP a day after 8 out of 11 Congress MLAs joined the BJP in the state.

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The Speaker said he took the decision after the Congress MLAs claimed in a letter that they had the necessary numbers of representatives 

The anti-defection law prohibits the disqualification of MLAs from a party if two-thirds of its legislators join another party; after that, the MLAs cannot be disqualified. With disqualification out of the question, the Congress party was totally destroyed in Goa after having only 3 MLAs left in the 40-member Goa state assembly.

The Goa assembly has a strength of 40 members. With the merger of Congress MLAs into the BJP, the saffron party now enjoys the support of 33 MLAs (including two from the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party and three Independents).

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