MARGAO: Goa Forward Party (GFP) president Vijai Sardesai said on Tuesday that the Congress leadership has shown its inclination towards an alliance with it for the 2022 assembly polls. Local Congress functionaries, however, said that they were unaware of any such development.
“Dinesh Gundu Rao (AICC secretary in charge of Goa desk) spoke to me. He said that the Congress leadership has agreed to an alliance with GFP. Modalities, however, are yet to be discussed,” Sardesai said.
He also said that GFP would contest 12 seats in the 2022 polls, and that the candidates would be selected after a “thorough survey and research”.
GFP currently has 3 MLAs in the state assembly, next only to Congress, the principal opposition party that is left with 5 MLAs after 10 of its legislators deserted the party to join BJP in July 2019.
Sardesai has for long been advocating a united political opposition against BJP, but his moves have been rebuffed by a faction within Congress. State Congress president Girish Chodankar too had in the past expressed his disinclination for any tie-up with GFP.
While walking out of the NDA earlier this year, Sardesai had urged all anti-BJP parties to form an alliance under the banner of ‘Team Goa’ to take on the saffron party in the 2022 assembly elections.
Speaking to TOI on Tuesday, Chodankar, however, said that he wasn’t aware of any discussion held between Sardesai and Rao as claimed by Sardesai, but stressed that talks on alliance hadn’t yet started at the local level. “The central leadership will first start a consultation process with local functionaries and the cadre before deciding on the proposal of an alliance,” Chodankar said. “As party president, I am not aware of any talks that have happened in that regard. The leadership has told us that local inputs will be taken from leaders and cadre on the alliance issue and that a call will be taken at an appropriate time. This was during the last talk I had with our party leadership on alliance.”
Leader of opposition Digambar Kamat also denied having any knowledge of the alliance proposal finding favour with the Congress high command. “Dinesh Gundu Rao had made a statement (during his Goa visit) that the party was open for alliances, and that the party would take a right decision at the right time. On that basis, perhaps, Vijai may have made that statement,” Kamat told TOI.
