Top News Of The Day: 8 Congress MLAs Join BJP In Goa

Barely two months after the Congress seemed to have staved off a defection bid, eight of its 11 MLAs led by top leaders Digambar Kamat and Michael Lobo joined the ruling BJP, reducing the opposition party to just three members in a House of 40. The mass defection - a 2019 redux for Goa Congress - is hugely embarrassing for the party in the middle of Rahul Gandhi's 'Bharat Jodo Yatra' (Unite India March); Farmers across India are watching with horror as their cattle collapse across fields, infected with the deadly lumpy skin disease. Rajasthan is the worst-affected state where, since July, over 50,000 cattle have died; An Air India Express flight bound for Kochi was evacuated at Muscat airport in Oman after a fire was detected in one of the engines just before take-off and other top stories.