Panaji, Sep 5 (IANS): Voters should send MLAs who defected from the Congress packing in the 2022 Assembly polls, just like inept bureaucrats are sent home with voluntary retirement schemes (VRS) by the government, Goa's Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat said on Sunday.

"Those who have left should never come back into politics. This is all in your hands. Send them permanently home. Just like government servants can be given VRS if they do not work, just like that they (the defectors) should be given VRS and made to sit at home," he said, while addressing a party block meeting at the St Andre constituency in north Goa.

Congress' Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao was also present at the event.

The Congress has been the worst-hit political outfit vis-a-vis defections, with as many as 13 of its MLAs quitting to join the ruling BJP since 2017.

Kamat also said that the Congress had shut its doors on the MLAs who had defected from the party. "We will never take them back into the party," he said.