PANJIM: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) said that an opportunity to bring secular forces together to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa has been missed following the Congress refusal for an alliance.

NCP National Secretary Prafulla Patel said the party will now contest over 20 seats in the State and the candidates will be declared on Wednesday. “We are really surprised that a good opportunity to bring all secular forces together is being missed,” Patel said. He said Congress is interested in allowing communal forces to gain ground. 

He said NCP was ready to fight the elections alone, but feelers for an alliance had come from Congress. “They invited us for discussion. We placed our viewpoint before them but after that Congress has not decided anything,” Patel said.  

“NCP will contest 20 seats in Goa” he said and refuted the claim that NCP was offered only two seats during the alliance talks. “I spoke to Digvijay in a meeting at Delhi and demanded at least 10 to 12 seats,” Patel said and added, “Many established leaders and workers are already in the fray. Some of them have already filed nominations. We will release the list of candidates on Wednesday.”