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.
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.
In the 2017 state assembly polls, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats.
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.
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.
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.
'This is a new Congress. Let the BJP be warned.'
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