Team Herald
PANJIM: The battle rout in Delhi has left the two INDIA bloc partners – Congress and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – picking up the pieces in Goa and it’s not a pretty picture. Leaders of both Opposition parties are speaking openly about going it alone even as they acknowledge that an alliance that will help consolidate the Opposition vote is the only way to take on the BJP in the 2027 State elections.
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However, both parties maintain that a decision on alliances will be taken by the national leadership in due course.
When contacted, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) senior vice president M K Shaikh said, “Why should we think of an alliance now? We are strengthening the party organisation. Congress has its footprint in all 40 Assembly segments with a sizeable number of workers and voters, and Salcete taluka is the strongest among all.”
Shaikh said, “AAP leaders should not have targeted AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi during campaigning for Delhi Assembly elections. If AAP’s enemy is BJP, then they should have thought of it before attacking the Congress leaders.”
GPCC vice president Sunil Kawthankar said, “Decision on forging alliances with the like-minded parties will be taken by the High Command and it is not decided locally. But if you analyse the results of 2022 Goa Assembly elections, BJP came to power by polling 35 per cent of vote share, while the divided Opposition had secured 65 per cent of vote share. We lost many Assembly seats by slender margins. Political parties should not allow it to happen.”
“Looking at the manner in which the BJP is going to elections, it is necessary that the political parties should look at a larger picture and work as a united front,” Kawthankar said.
“Pre-poll alliances and seat sharing is mainly decided by the High Command and only fine-tuning is done by taking the local leaders into confidence,” he said.
South Goa District Congress Committee president Savio D’Silva said, “What is the point of having a truck with AAP when its leaders are accusing Rahul Gandhi and calling him corrupt. We can have an alliance where we need to defeat BJP, but definitely not in Salcete taluka, which has always been Congress bastion. After the Delhi debacle, AAP wants to survive with Congress support in Goa. We will not allow it to happen.”
Stating that he was not answerable to the utterances by the Benaulim Block Congress Committee, AAP State president Adv Amit Palekar opined that statement on alliances should come from the Congress State president and AICC Goa desk in-charge.
“Benaulim Block Congress leaders are saying they don’t want an alliance and I would see it as indiscipline and misconduct. When Congress wanted an alliance during Lok Sabha polls, we withdrew our candidate and supported the Congress. It was almost 25 years ago when Congress last won the Benaulim seat. We are competent enough to fight elections single-handedly, but we have to understand that alliance is the aspiration of people of Goa to defeat BJP. Consolidation of votes is important in elections, and it happens when there is an alliance.”
He said, “Let Congress tell us that they don’t want an alliance. We are not begging for an alliance, but split of votes will help the BJP and therefore the alliance is in the interest of Goa.”
Adv Palekar further informed that the AAP is not dejected by the Delhi Assembly results. “Our party executive met in Panjim on Monday, and we will start the process to build our cadre. We have to recoup and prepare for the upcoming Zilla Panchayat (ZP) elections,” he said.
AAP’s Velim MLA Cruz Silva said, “We have seen the results of Lok Sabha polls after going for alliance and results of Haryana and Delhi elections after contesting separately. People of Goa want alliance to defeat BJP and Congress has to seriously think about it. Our party work is going on and we are prepared to fight elections on our own strength. But people of Goa are waiting for an alliance to defeat BJP.”
