PANAJI: On Tuesday, In a late night development in Goa, two of the three MLAs of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) merged their party's legislative wing with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The mid-night political drama has increased the strength of the BJP from 12 to 14 in the 36-member House, bringing them at par with opposition Congress which has an equal number of MLAs on the floor. In a letter signed by Manohar Ajgaonkar and Dipak Pawaskar, the two legislators said that they have merged the MGP legislature party with the BJP. However, the third Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) MLA Sudin Dhavalikar, who is the Deputy CM in the BJP-led Goa government, has not signed the letter. Goa Assembly Speaker Michael Lobo was sent the letter at 1:45 am.

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Here it is to be noted that confirming the development, the Speaker said that his office was contacted by the two MLAs around 1:30 am when they walked in with a letter of merger, which was officially accepted. Lobo said "MGP's legislative wing has split. Two-third of MGP legislators formed a separate group and they are merging it with the BJP. All formalities as per the Constitution of India have been completed,".While Ajgaonkar is tourism minister, Dhavalikar is a deputy chief minister in the BJP-led state government in Goa.

However, Speaking on the merger, Goa CM Pramod Sawant said: "Two MGP MLAs Manohar Ajgaonkar and Deepak Pauskar have joined BJP for the stability of the government. Automatically, our strength has grown to 14." since two out of the three MLAs have merged the legislative wing, they are saved from inviting anti-defection law, which makes it mandatory that two-thirds of the strength should agree for merger. The legislators broke away from the MGP and formed a group, MGP (two) on Tuesday.

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