Congress leaders here have drawn comparisons between the Congress’ post-poll alliance with the JD (S) to form a government in Karnataka with a similar attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party in Goa in March 2017, but a senior Goa BJP leader has said it was not fair to compare the two scenarios.
“You cannot compare two states on one similar line. In fact, it differs from state to state and the scenario in Goa was different from what it is in Karnataka,” South Goa BJP MP Narendra Savoikar told presspersons on Wednesday.
The BJP had won 13 seats in the 2017 Goa Assembly election, reducing its number from 21 (simple majority) in the 40-member house in the previous Assembly as compared to the 17 seats won by the Congress, which emerged as the single largest party. But after swift political manoeuvring, the BJP staked claim to the government with two regional parties and three independent MLAs.
In Karnataka, the Congress appears to have outmanoeuvered the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party with 104 seats.
Earlier in the day Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar told The Hindu that the Karnataka situation is similar to the one in Goa.
However, the BJP set a new precedent by cobbling together an alliance of disparate parties and independents without having any pre-poll alliance.
He also said that during the Goa situation, Manohar Parrikar and BJP national leaders had said the BJP had got 1% more votes than the Congress so it was a natural claimant to form the government. As against this Congress has, in Karnataka, polled 1.89% more votes than the BJP.
