PANAJI: Hinting at its efforts towards formation of a grand alliance of opposition parties to defeat BJP, All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) party said that it will do “everything possible to defeat BJP in Goa”. Its Goa in-charge Mahua Moitra said TMC president Mamata Banerjee “will not shy away from walking the extra mile in Goa too.”
Moitra’s comment comes just a day after Goa Forward Party (GFP) president Vijai Sardesai called for unity among opposition parties in Goa ahead of the upcoming assembly polls.
“Rest assured, TMC will do everything possible to defeat BJP in Goa — Congress, TMC and MGP,” Moitra said in a tweet.
“We must, along with Congress, TMC and MGP, see this danger, rise above our egos, and thwart this plan to divide and rule. This is what Goa wants,” Sardesai had said in a tweet.
Sources said that MGP’s Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar and Pandurang ‘Deepak’ Dhavalikar met with Margao MLA Digambar Kamat a few days ago to discuss the polls. There are indications that poll strategist Prashant Kishore has also been in touch with Sardesai to discuss the evolving election campaign.
Sardesai said BJP could leverage the Covid situation and the pandemic restrictions to its advantage.
“If we are going to have an election at the peak of the pandemic, and there are so many players in the field, we are handing the state on a platter to BJP. Because of this extraordinary situation, one has to be pragmatic. It would entail some sacrifices if we want to get rid of BJP,” Sardesai told TOI.
Political observers, however, view the “sudden brainwave” of a grand alliance from TMC and GFP as an idea borne out of the need for “political survival and to come out in 2022 with grace.”
“The alliance proposal has no substance viewed in the current context,” said political commentator Prabhakar Timble. “Congress has reasonably good candidates in most constituencies who are capable of fighting BJP. TMC has none except the poached former Congress politicians. This sudden realisation of an alliance with Congress is most probably to ward off TMC’s new admits from turning hostile.”
Timble expressed disapproval over GFP’s sudden change of stance — from spitting venom against TMC after having failed to forge alliance with it to now cosying up to it when it suits its needs. “It appears that there is panic in GFP camp as its chief does not get the comfort feeling. Every new day brings in fresh stories of risk factors,” he said.
