Former Goa Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane, who had defied the party whip to vote against the trust motion of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar last month, on Thursday formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Rane did not rule out the possibility of joining the BJP, saying 'all options are open'.
Deviya Rane said it is historic that no legislator (in Goa) has won consecutively so many times from the same seat.
With the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party and the Trinamool Congress in the poll arena, the election is expected to be a multi-cornered one this time.
BJP leader and caretaker chief minister Pramod Sawant is the clear favourite for the post of the CM but faces some opposition.
In the 2017 state assembly polls, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats.
The discussions on the new Goa CM came to a halt after Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar wanted to be the chief minister.
Rane, 87, who has served as the chief minister of the coastal state for six times, had won from the Poriem assembly constituency as many as 11 consecutive times.
In the last two-and-a half years, the Congress has lost 13 of its MLAs to the BJP which now enjoys an overwhelming majority in the assembly.
It was crucial for the BJP to bag the two seats as it does not enjoy a majority on its own in the 40-member assembly.
Sawant took the oath in Konkani language.
Vishwajit Rane, who had unsuccessfully lobbied for the CM's post, has been given crucial Health and Town and Country Planning Portfolios along with Urban Development, Women and Child, and Forest departments.
The biggest jolt the Congress came in 2019 when a group of its 10 MLAs, led by then leader of opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, left the party together and joined the ruling BJP.
The opposition Congress could muster only 16 votes against the government with one of its legislators absenting from the crucial floor test.
'This is a new Congress. Let the BJP be warned.'
If pandemic (mis)management threatened to dominate Goa's electoral discourse, the BJP is up against a deeper structural issue in its organisation, created by the fact that a majority of the legislature party and the ministerial council is made up of Congress defectors, disparagingly referred to by the Opposition as "imports". Radhika Ramaseshan reports.
With this, the Congress's strength in the 40-member assembly reduced to 14 from 16.
Incumbents Pushkar Singh Dhami and Pramod Sawant are the clear favourites but face some opposition
Sawant on Tuesday said his government had sought a floor test on Wednesday to prove its strength in the assembly.
As per the power-sharing arrangement, Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLA Sudin Dhavalikar will be the deputy chief ministers.
The Association of Democratic Reforms said Goa has set a unique record, which is "unparalleled" in the history of Indian democracy.
Parrikar claimed that the denial of ticket to him is similar to the 1994 situation when attempts were made to throw his father out of the party.
The BJP deputed Shah as observer to Uttar Pradesh, where Yogi Adityanath powered the party to an impressive victory and where there are no hurdles in the way of the priest-politician's second stint in power.
The development comes at a time when Parrikar, 62, is undergoing treatment for a pancreatic ailment at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi.
'At the end of the day, there will largely be a single candidate against the NDA's.' 'That itself will produce a different result altogether.'
'Parrikar is living for Modi and Shah, not for his motherland or Goa'
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