Panaji, Dec 14 (IANS): The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) on Tuesday challenged the merger of its lone MLA and former Chief Minister Churchill Alemao into the Trinamool Congress on Monday.

Speaking to reporters at the state Assembly complex, president of the Goa NCP Jose Phillip D'Souza met Speaker Rajesh Patnekar and submitted a petition challenging Alemao's merger into the AITC.

"The NCP has filed a petition before the Speaker. Our MLA Churchill Alemao won on an NCP ticket, he has now joined the TMC. Now, when he left, he showed a resolution that he is merging with that party as a lone party legislator," D'Souza told reporters.

"My simple question is. When you merge with another party, the other party has to have existing MLAs. That party (TMC) does not have a single MLA. So what has Alemao merged into?" D'Souza said.

Alemao on Monday had announced the Goa NCP's merger with the AITC and said that the merger would be formal once the state Legislature department issues a notification.