During the last five years of the outgoing Assembly, twenty MLAs in the 40-member Goa House resigned or switched sides.
During this time, two prominent MLAs passed away: Manohar Parrikar and Francis D’Souza.
Parrikar was serving as the chief minister when he died in 2019, following which BJP’s Pramod Sawant took over the top post in the coastal state.
This year’s elections for the new Assembly took place on February 14th, and the results will be announced on Thursday.
Following the 2017 Assembly elections, the BJP formed a government with the help of some regional parties and independents.
Vishwajit Rane was the first legislator to resign after the elections. He left the Congress and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Later, he won a by-election in his home constituency of the Valpoi Assembly.
In 2018, two more MLAs Dayanand Sopte (Mandrem) and Subhash Shirodkar (Shiroda) resigned from Congress and joined the BJP.
Later, in 2019, both Parrikar and Francis D’Souza died, leaving their Assembly constituencies vacant.
Following that, by-elections were held in four constituencies: Shiroda, Mandrem, Panaji, and Mapusa. While the Congress won in Panaji, the three other seats were won by BJP candidates.
In July 2019, ten Congress MLAs switched sides to the BJP en masse.
During the fag end of the outgoing Assembly, Congress MLA Luizinho Faleiro resigned to join the Trinamool Congress (TMC), while Jayesh Salgaonkar (Goa Forward Party), Rohan Khaunte (Independent), Govind Gaude (Independent), Ravi Naik (Congress) quit and joined the BJP.
Besides, BJP MLAs Michael Lobo, Deepak Pauskar, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Alina Saldanha, Pravin Zantye, Wilfred D’Sa, Isidore Fernandes and Carlose Almeida also resigned.
Saldanha became a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Lobo and Almeida of the Congress, and Zantye of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).
Moreover, Pauskar, Fernandes, and D’Sa ran as independents this time, while Rodrigues ran on the NCP’s ticket.
MLA Vinod Palyekar of the Goa Forward Party resigned to run as an independent, while Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco of the Congress joined the TMC, which he later left to run as an independent.
Independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar also resigned to join the Congress.
With 17 seats in the 2017 Assembly elections, Congress emerged as the single largest party. However, it was unable to form a government, and its numbers in the 40-member House have decreased to two in the last five years.
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