Frustrated in its attempts to create a tripartite anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition in Goa, similar to the one in Maharashtra, an upset Shiv Sena told the Congress it would not reach double digits in the upcoming Goa Assembly election if the party contested on its own.
Such was the political scenario in the coastal State, Shiv Sena MP and chief spokesperson Sanjay Raut, the prime mover behind creating a Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA)-like coalition in Goa, said on Thursday.
Election to the 40-member Assembly will be held on February 14. The Sena, the Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) share power in Maharashtra’s ruling MVA government.
“The Congress has merely two MLAs in Goa, a majority of its legislators having defected to the BJP… We [the Shiv Sena and the NCP] had offered to support the Congress in these trying times. But I do not know what the Congress is thinking. It cannot cross the single-digit mark if it contests alone,” Mr. Raut said in New Delhi.
The Sena MP, who had apparently held discussions with the All-India Congress Committee (AICC)’s Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao, the Congress’s Legislative Party (CLP) leader in Goa Digambar Kamat, and Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar, said he had placed a proposal that the Congress contest in 30 of the 40 Assembly seats and leave the rest to its allies.
According to Mr. Raut, these 10 Assembly seats, which could be allotted to the Sena, the NCP and the Goa Forward Party (GFP), were areas where the Congress had not won elections in the past several decades.
The Congress already has a pre-poll alliance in Goa with the Vijai Sardesai-led GFP.
Mr. Raut said while Congress leader Rahul Gandhi was favourable to the idea of an alliance, the local Congress leadership took a different view.
The Shiv Sena was ready to back the candidature of Utpal Parrikar, son of BJP leader and late Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, should he decide to contest. Mr. Utpal, who has expressed interest in contesting from Panaji, has been disenchanted with the current BJP leadership under Pramod Sawant for some time now.
Mr. Raut said the Sena had supported the family of Independent Lok Sabha member from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Mohan Delkar, who was found dead in a Mumbai hotel last year. Mr. Delkar’s wife Kalaben Delkar had later won the Lok Sabha bypoll as a Shiv Sena candidate.
On Wednesday, the BJP’s Goa in-charge Devendra Fadnavis had dismissed speculation surrounding Utpal Parrikar’s candidature, remarking that the party could not grant a ticket to him just because he was Manohar Parrikar’s son.
Meanwhile, Mr. Fadnavis, who is on a four-day tour of Goa, poked fun at the Sena. “They are contesting to win at least one seat where they can save its deposit,” said Mr. Fadnavis. It was competing against the NOTA (None of The Above) vote share, the BJP leader said.
“It has been seen in the past that the Sena has never been able to get more than the total votes polled under the NOTA category,” Mr. Fadnavis said. The BJP, he said, was confident of forming the next government in Goa.
