MGP announces alliance with TMC ahead of Goa elections

PANAJI: The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) on Monday announced that it would contest the forthcoming Goa Assembly elections in alliance with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.

Addressing a press conference, MGP president Deepak Dhavalikar said their party’s central committee resolved to have an alliance with the TMC for the state polls due early next year.

Details like who would be chief ministerial face (of the alliance) would be worked out later, he said. The MGP, which had won three seats in the 2017 polls to the 40-member Goa Assembly, is currently left with only one MLA after two of its legislators joined the ruling BJP. The TMC has already decided to contest the Goa Assembly polls and expressed confidence that it will do well in the elections.

Dhavalikar said both the parties have joined hands to provide good governance to people of the state. “There is a wave against the BJP. People want a change and we will be able to form government in the state,” he claimed. Dhavalikar said an impression was being created that the MGP did not have any option other than the BJP.

“We have always been criticising the BJP. We were in talks with all other parties like the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress and the TMC,” he said.

The MGP chief claimed 60 per cent of the people in the state are yet to decide whom to vote for, hence this option has been provided to them. He said the MGP can contest the election on its own, but considering the current political scenario, it has been decided to go for a pre-poll alliance.

In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, the Congress emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats in the 40-member House. But, the BJP at that time forged an alliance with some regional outfits and independent legislators to form government.