Goa polls: Faced with a wave of defections, the Congress forces its candidates to swear allegiance to the party before God.

 Before the Goa Assembly elections next month, the Congress, which has been hit the hardest by defections in the BJP-ruled state in the last five years, made its candidates vow before God that if they are elected, they will not transfer parties.

The Congress escorted all of its 34 candidates to a temple, a church, and a dargah in the state on Saturday and forced them to take the 'anti-defection' promise.

Since the last election, the majority of the Congress's members have left the party. After the 2017 Assembly elections, the grand old party, which had emerged as the single largest force by capturing 17 seats in the 40-member House, currently has only two MLAs in the House. Ten Congress legislators joined the ruling BJP in 2019, bringing the total number of BJP legislators in the Assembly to 27.