Congress forms pact with Goa Forward Party

BENGALURU: The Congress unit of Goa on Tuesday said that MLAs of Goa Forward Party (GFP), Vijai Sardesai and Vinod Palyekar, and independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar met senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and extended their full support to the party to uproot the “corrupt BJP government of Goa” in the next elections. 

Of the 40 Assembly seats in Goa, Congress is strong in 14-15 segments. It had been sensing that it would put up a weak show in seven to eight constituencies, where GFP is strong.  Tuesday’s tweet was put out by Goa Congress and Karnataka Congress MLA Dinesh Gundu Rao, MLC Prakash Rathod, party leaders Mansoor Ali Khan and Sunil Hanamnavar and their supporters. 

Sardesai is a former Youth Congress leader and had served the party as the general secretary before breaking away over personal differences with the state party leaders. On the reason for the alliance, Congress leaders said their surveys had indicated that such a pre-poll would consolidate secular votes. 

Sardesai told The New Indian Express, “We have not discussed the arithmetic. We have agreed to a pre-poll alliance which will help in the post-poll scenario. The alliance will help Congress get a majority. Congress and Goa Forward Party together will form a government, which will mean that the secular votes are not divided.” 

Dinesh Gundu Rao, who is in charge of Goa, said, “This alliance will help overcome the corrupt and inept BJP government. This alliance will help Congress come to power in Goa.’’  In the 2017 state Assembly polls, Congress had secured 14 seats, while GFP had three. But after the results, GFP alleged that Congress had not kept its word on the pre-poll alliance and had gone with BJP. This time, with elections just over two months away, Congress can breathe easy with the pre-poll alliance in its pocket, sources said.