A split looked imminent in the Congress when five of its Goa MLAs missed a meeting last week. However, it seems that the rebel MLAs don't have enough numbers to avoid the anti-defection law.
Congress's Assembly poll candidates in Goa will take a pledge of loyalty to the party in the presence of its senior leader Rahul Gandhi on Friday, when he will be on a day-long visit to the state, a party functionary said.
After emerging as the single largest party in the 2017 assembly elections, winning 17 out of 40 seats, a total of 15 Congress MLAs had defected to the BJP in the years that followed. In this light, the party seeks to reassure their voters that history won't repeat itself.