Right Medicine: Ayurveda man Sawant leads BJP to clean victory in Goa, MGP and Independents climb aboard

Comfortably placed to retain power in Goa, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday said it will make a decision on staking claim to form the next government in the state after a meeting of its newly-elected MLAs on Friday.

Earlier in the day, a senior party leader had said, the BJP, which emerged as the single largest party winning 20 seats in the 40-member Assembly, will meet Governor P S Sreedharan Pillai and stake claim to form a government on Thursday evening.

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The BJP has said it has received letters of support from the Maharshtrawadi Gomantak Party (2 seats) and three Independent MLAs, enabling the ruling party to cross the simple majority mark of 21.

BJP's Goa election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis said a decision on staking claim to form the government will be taken on Friday after a meeting of the party's legislature wing.

He made the remarks at a press conference in the presence of Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, Goa BJP president Sadanand Tanavade, Union Minister Shripad Naik and other party leaders.

Chief Minister Pramod Sawant gave credit for the victory to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "We will go for the government formation as per the party's decision," he said. The party managed to increase its vote share and seats in this election without entering into any alliance, Sawant noted.

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In a series of tweets, Union minister Amit Shah expressed his gratitude to the people of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa for reposing their faith in the BJP.

Fadnavis said the MGP has formally given a letter to the BJP extending its support to the party in government formation.

"Both the winning candidates of the MGP will support the BJP along with the three Independent MLAs," he said.
He said the party's central parliamentary board will meet in New Delhi late on Thursday to discuss the results of all the states, where polls were held in February-March.

The committee will designate an observer for Goa, who will arrive here tomorrow to participate in the legislature party wing meeting, Fadnavis said.

After the meeting, the party will decide the date to meet the Governor and stake claim for government formation, the former Maharashtra CM said.

Fadanavis said that BJP's central leadership will be participating in the swearing in ceremonies of all the four states due to which the dates would be decided accordingly.

On the other side, Congress said it respected people's mandate and would sit in opposition. State Congress chief Girish Chodankar said that he took responsibility for the party's performance. “I own the responsibility...we were not able to convince people not to split the votes. I feel that I have failed as Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president and time has come to replace me,” Chodankar added.

With PTI inputs

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