Team Herald
PONDA: Fresh off the plane from Delhi after a meeting with BJP national general secretary (Organisation) B L Santosh, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) president Pandurang aka Deepak Dhavalikar asserted on Wednesday that the MGP-BJP alliance would stay in place for the 2027 Assembly polls and even the 2029 Lok Sabha elections.
His statement assumes significance in the backdrop of two recent developments that are significant for the State’s political climate – the impending Cabinet reshuffle and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s recent assertions that BJP would keep the Priol and Mandrem constituencies in the 2027 State polls.
Pushed on the defensive by these assertions, the Dhavalikar brothers – Deepak and Ramakrishna aka Sudin – had rushed to Delhi earlier this week to meet the BJP top brass. Deepak’s statements on Wednesday seem to suggest that the meeting went off satisfactorily, though he claimed it was a goodwill visit.
Dhavalikar said, “The post-poll alliance was formed by BJP national leaders after the 2022 Assembly results, so naturally we took up the matter with BJP national general secretary and also asked whether one of the Cabinet Ministers in the State has been given authority to speak on the alliance between the two parties.”
The unnamed ‘Cabinet Minister’ is a reference to Art and Culture Minister Govind Gaude, who followed up the CM’s declaration on Priol by saying that the announcement gave him the strength of ‘10 elephants’.
However, the MGP president said that Santosh had promised them that the alliance would continue into the next Assembly and Lok Sabha elections. He went on to add that since both parties had a common voter base, unity would be important and that seat sharing would be decided after a survey before the elections.
He claimed that there were certain elements within the BJP that were trying to jeopardise the alliance, but the BJP central leadership had taken note of this.