10 ex-Goa Congress MLAs to meet Amit Shah today

Ten Goa Congress MLAs, who merged with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday, have left for Delhi along with Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant to meet Union Home Minister and BJP president Amit Shah.

"We are taking the 10 Goa Congress MLAs that joined BJP, to Delhi to meet party president Amit Shah. There will be a meeting tomorrow (on Thursday), everything else will be decided there," Sawant told ANI here.

The Congress MLAs who severed ties with the grand old party are -- Chandrakant Kavlekar, Isidore Fernandes, Francis Silveira, Filipe Neri Rodrigues, Jennifer, Atanasio Monserrate, Antonio Fernandes, Nilakanth Halarnkar, Clafacio Dias and Wilfred D'Sa.

"BJP has got a clear mandate today. The number of MLAs is up to 27 and with this, we can do people's work," said Goa Assembly Deputy Speaker Michael Lobo.

Filipe Neri Rodrigues said, "We have already joined the BJP. We are part of it now. It's a collective opinion of all the Congress legislators that BJP has got mandate of people... What we could not deliver to the people of Goa being in Opposition, we will also try to take benefit of this government to the people.