Panaji, Mar 3 (IANS): Still smarting from the humiliation of being pipped to the post after the 2017 Assembly elections in Goa, the Congress in the coastal state appears to have prepared a choreographed programme for claiming power on March 10, when votes polled in the February 14 Assembly polls are scheduled to be counted.

According to former Ports Minister Michael Lobo, the Congress is confident of coming to power in Goa and has even set a timeline for making a claim to form the government this time around.

"The Congress candidates who become MLAs will not split this time. We will give a good government. By 3 pm on March 10, the results will be out, and the Congress will stake claim to form the government by 5 pm," Lobo told reporters.

"Those in power now will go to the opposition soon... They need not worry," Lobo said.

"But they should not think that we will split this time. No one will split. We are all strong. People from other parties are in touch with us. They have told us that they do not want to go to the other side," he added.

Interestingly, Lobo was a BJP MLA from 2012-2022 and joined the Congress just ahead of the February 14 Assembly elections.

After the 2017 Assembly poll results were declared, Lobo was one of the key BJP leaders who was instrumental in shepherding some non-BJP legislators into the saffron camp, enabling late Manohar Parrikar to stake claim to form a BJP-led coalition government.

After the Assembly polls in 2017, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party, but delay on its part to approach the Raj Bhavan with requisite numbers helped the BJP stake claim to power.

Lobo, who was appointed as a Ports Minister during the BJP's second stint in power, quit the BJP accusing the state leadership of neglecting the party's cadre.