India, Feb. 13 -- After the defections of Milind Deora and Baba Siddique, the Congress was dealt its biggest blow in the last few years with the exit of senior leader and former chief minister Ashok Chavan. Chavan, who resigned from the primary membership of the party on Monday, is likely to join the BJP on February 15. There is conjecture that his resignation is set to trigger large-scale defections from MLAs.

The Hindustan Times had on February 3 reported that about 15 Congress MLAs would possibly leave the party ahead of the upcoming elections.

Chavan, who was being investigated in the Adarsh scam, is a mass leader who also enjoys the support of most Congress MLAs. He has his own set of loyalists in the party, and it is speculated th...