PANJIM: Almost two years after being sacked from the BJP-led coalition government in Goa, regional outfit Goa Forward Party (GFP) on Tuesday announced its official withdrawal from the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), citing “anti-Goan policies” of the Dr Pramod Sawant government.
The party’s State Executive and Political Affairs Committee unanimously voted to break away from the NDA at a meeting on Tuesday, following which party president Vijai Sardesai announced that “the GFP is out of the NDA forever, and will never look back”.
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“The BJP has been backstabbing the people of Goa since July 2019 by shifting its focus away from Goa with the introduction of numerous anti-Goan policies in the State. Under late Manohar Parrikar, the BJP used to be a party with a difference, and under Pramod Sawant it is a different party – an anti-Goan party. There is no Parrikar legacy left,” Sardesai told media persons after the party meeting.
Sardesai, a former Deputy Chief Minister, pointed out that GFP’s relationship with the NDA has been dead since July 2019, and the party has taken on its role as a member of the opposition, and has vigilantly and rigorously attempted to hold the government accountable over issues like Mhadei, Mollem, linear projects, unemployment, COVID-19 among others.
The GFP has shot off a letter to Union Home Minister and NDA chairperson Amit Shah conveying their decision. “I write to you today formally declaring the Goa Forward Party’s withdrawal from the National Democratic Alliance. There is no doubt that our relationship with the NDA ended in July 2019, with no room for reconsideration,” Sardesai said in the letter.
He claimed that in the last two years, the BJP has repeatedly introduced ‘anti-Goan policies’ in every session of the State Legislative Assembly. “Since July 2019, the BJP’s Goa leadership has turned its back on the people of the State who looked ahead with hope to the prospect of all-round development. Parrikar’s death brought Goa to despair, ushering in a period of rampant corruption and dishonesty,” GFP said.
The exit of the GFP, which has three MLAs in the 40-member State Assembly, from the NDA comes hardly a few months before the Legislative Assembly elections in 2022. The move attains significance as the demands of a united opposition get louder.
The announcement also coincides with the GFP and Congress MLAs joining hands to contest the Margao Municipal Council polls on a common platform, though there the Fatorda Congress Block has fielded its own candidates for the polls.
Expressing willingness to join hands with Congress for 2022 polls, Sardesai said the time has come for a united political opposition against the BJP. “For months now we have been working together to bring members of the political and civil society to extend their support to Team Goa,” he said.
GFP extended support to the NDA in 2017 to facilitate the formation of the then BJP-led State government under the leadership of the late Manohar Parrikar. However, after Parrikar’s death in March 2019, the GFP ministers were dropped from the cabinet and subsequently as allies in July of the same year.
