Congress discussing tie-up with NCP, MGP and GFP for 2022 Goa polls

The Congress is holding talks for a prospective alliance with the NCP, Goa Forward Party (GFP) and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) for the Goa Assembly elections, due early next year, a Congress office-bearer said on Monday.

AICC Goa desk incharge Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters all these parties are of the view that Goa needs to be rid of a “corrupt and communal” government led by BJP.

“The main aim of this alliance, if it materialises, will be to give a stable government in Goa for five years,” he said.

The GFP and the MGP had been part of the BJP-led government for some time in the last five years.

Underlining Congress strategy for the elections, Rao said his party is open for a tie-up with the people who understand Goa, belong to the soil and understand the Goan culture and community.

Rao, however, said, the Congress did not want to repeat the mistakes it made in the 2017 polls and said his party wanted to achieve a “proper alignment” before finalisation of an alliance.

Alignment with like-minded parties was crucial for an alliance, he said.

The Congress had, in 2017, refused to enter into an alliance with the GFP. In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, Congress had won the highest 17 seats in the 40-member House restricting the BJP at 13. However, the BJP allied with regional parties to form a coalition government under the leadership of the late Manohar Parrikar.

Over the last five years, Congress lost 13 MLAs to opposition parties, mostly BJP. Senior Congress leader and MLA Luizinho Faleiro recently joined the TMC. Earlier, on Sunday, GFP chief Vijai Sardesai had said his party would reveal the contours of the next government in Goa by December 19 (the 60th anniversary of the liberation from Portuguese rule), and had had vowed to “liberate” Goa from “price rise, corruption and misrule”.

However, Sardesai, on being asked about the possibility of an alliance with the Congress, was guarded in his response and sought to put the ball in the latters court.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)