Panaji, Oct 15 (IANS): Goa Assembly Speaker Rajesh Patnekar on Tuesday said that he would hear the petitioner, the Congress, once more, before deciding on whether notice should be issued to 10 MLAs, who split the party and joined the ruling BJP in July.

The Speaker was hearing a disqualification petition filed by state Congress President Girish Chodankar, alleging that the merger of the 10 MLAs into the BJP did not qualify as valid under the 10th Schedule of the Indian Constitution.

"The Speaker's office had given the petitioner a date to make a representation today (Tuesday). The petitioner will be called again for a hearing before a decision on the issue of notice to the 10 MLAs is taken," an official attached to the Assembly said.

Chodankar, in August, had said that the split engineered by the 10 MLAs in the 15-member Congress Legislative Party and their subsequent merger into the BJP was illegal.

In all, 13 Congress MLAs have quit the party and joined the BJP since 2017.