As counting to the 40-seat Goa Assembly election draws near, the major players in the fray are gearing up for a fractured verdict with the Congress leadership in talks with parties that have not allied with the BJP to form the next government after the results on March 10.
Congress election in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao and the senior election observer P. Chidambaram, who reached Goa on Sunday will be parleying with probable alliance partners, said party sources.
Both Mr. Rao and Mr. Chidambaram, along with the Congress’ ally, the Vijai Sardesai-led Goa Forward Party (GFP) are said to be charting out a strategy to win support from independents in order to help the party win the magic figure of 21 seats.
The Congress’ dithering in forming the government after the 2017 Assembly election had resulted in the BJP under the late Manohar Parrikar to form the government with the critical support of Mr. Sardesai’s GFP and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), along with independent leaders like ex-Porvorim MLA Rohan Khaunte.
Acutely conscious of his party’s failure to seize the initiative after the 2017 Assembly election despite emerging as the single-largest party (winning 17 seats to the BJP’s 13), Mr. Rao stressed that the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) this time would elect their leader within minutes of the final result on March 10 without wasting any time.
“We will stake claim to form the government on the same day,” he said.
On Saturday, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi held a meeting of senior Goa Congress leaders in Delhi in order to discuss the course of action the party would take once the results were out.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Michael Lobo – an erstwhile Minister in the Pramod Sawant-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government – said that his party would take the MGP along with it in its government even if the Congress secured a majority.
The MGP had contested the election in alliance with the Trinamool Congress.
Mr. Lobo claimed that the MGP would never again go with the BJP as the saffron party, which had been the MGP’s long-time ally in the coastal State, as the latter had ‘abused’ it by dumping the MGP in 2019.
The MGP had contested the election in alliance with the Trinamool Congress (TMC). A bitter spat had erupted in the run-up to the Goa Assembly election between the Trinamool and the Congress with the former claiming that Congress leaders had haughtily ‘spurned’ an offer to jointly take on the BJP.
The BJP’s ranks were bolstered after the defection of ten Congress MLAs in July 2019. This time, the saffron party, bereft of Manohar Parrikar’s leadership, is ranged against an array of opposition parties besides the Congress, which includes the Trinamool, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the GFP, the MGP and the Revolutionary Goans (RG) which is considered a ‘wild card’ in the outcome.
Meanwhile, the BJP has asked its core committee members to be present at party headquarters in March 10.
BJP Goa chief Sadanand Shet Tanavade took at a dig at the Congress’ allegations that the saffron party was indulging in “phone tapping”.
“The results are in sealed EVMs. These wild allegations of phone tapping are an excuse on part of the Congress to justify its expectedly poor performance on March 10…we are not dependent on luck but the acknowledgement from Goans of our performance in the last ten years,” he said.
Other BJP leaders said the very fact that the Congress was now seeking post-poll alliances was a sign that the party would not live up to its tall pre-election claims of winning a majority.
