PANJIM: The Bharatiya Janata Party leadership has finally cleared the alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and Goa Vikas Party for the Zilla Panchayat polls, BJP leaders declared on Wednesday, with the BJP conceding just nine seats to MGP which had demanded 19 seats.
The announcement comes following a meeting between leaders of both parties including Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, MGP leader Ramkrishna (Sudin) Dhavalikar and others at Goa Sadan, Delhi, on Tuesday night.
Party sources confirmed the development, adding that the MGP will not be given 19 seats as it had demanded, but just nine.
BJP sources had confirmed that the ZP polls alliance would be discussed and a decision taken by the party high command and will review the membership drive in the State that crossed the four lakh mark.
According to sources, the BJP was not willing to give the MGP any seats in the constituencies represented by the BJP as per the latest talks.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who returned from Delhi, had confirmed that the alliance talks were on to discuss seats based on the winability of candidates.
The regional ally in the government had recently sent a formal proposal to the BJP for contesting ZP elections in alliance with the saffron party.
Initially the BJP had tried to play hardball saying, “MGP has not approached us officially. They have written a letter to us instead. This kind of alliance doesn’t happen over letters. The leaders should discuss the details collectively,” BJP spokesman Subhash Fal Desai was quoted as saying during a press conference a week ago.
“If our alliance partners don’t want us then they can be ready to go it alone. The party has not closed doors for the alliance but would like its partners to systematically approach them for the ZP polls tie up,” he had said.
