Defiant Nationalist Congress Party Legislative Assembly Members in Goa, who withdrew support to the Congress-led government in the state reducing it to a minority, on Thursday decided not to attend Friday's talks, convened by the party's central leadership in Delhi in a bid to persuade them to retrace their steps.
"We will not go to Delhi on Friday. Let the party high command take a decision on the issue of withdrawal of support and then based on that, we will chalk out our course of action," said Joace Philip D'Souza, one of the three NCP legislators.
The stand by the MLAs came after a meeting with NCP leader Praful Patel, who was deputed by party supremo Sharad Pawar to bring them round.
Patel asked them not to press for withdrawal of support to the seven-month-old government. Patel had said the talks will resume in Delhi on Friday.
Chief Minister Digamber Kamat was also present at the meeting where the three NCP MLAs and independent legislator Visvajit Rane raised some issues.
Of the three NCP MLAs, two had resigned from the Kamat ministry.
The four legislators said that they were not happy at the functioning of the Kamat government. Rane, however, toned down his rhetoric, saying he had no problems with the leadership and that he did not want to create a crisis. He added that some issues needed to be addressed by the Chief Minister.
