Goa: Congress not yet in any mood for Maharashtra-like alliance with NCP, GFP or Shiv Sena

PANAJI: While senior spokesman and chief troubleshooter of the Shiv Sena Sanjay Raut, said his party is ready to contest around 20 seats in Goa, in the forthcoming assembly polls next year, in an attempt to gain power in the adjoining state and to get the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) out of power, the lethargic Congress setup in Goa, refused to respond to the statement made by the senior leader.

Maybe, because it was a Sunday and a wet, rainy Sunday too – the day when most Goans, irrespective of their political affiliations, like to spend with their family and do not want to be bothered with politics.

The Sena is exploring major, multi-party or Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA)-like alliance possibilities in Goa, Raut hinted.

However, Indyatv.in got in touch with some Congress bigwigs in Goa, who were not at all impressed by Raut’s overtures and couldn’t care a damn for the Sena leaders statements.

The Congress it seems wants to go solo, this time. Whatever that means, it will be a definite and complete rout for the grand old party in the coastal state, as other regional parties like the Goa Forward Party (GFP), the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the AAP and NCP will eat into their vote share, benefitting the BJP in a big way and ensuring a huge victory for the saffron party.

Voters look at a strong state leadership, CM candidate and strong party network, besides the local candidate when they cast their vote. The Goan voter is almost convinced that the Congress in Goa cannot form the next government on its own and needs support from other parties. If the Congress goes all alone, even loyal voters could desert the party, thinking that it will not be able to form a new Government on its own.

Additionally in each constituency, the Congress has at least two or more aspirants for the ticket. It is also possible (and bound to happen), that those aspirants and their followers, who do not get the ticket will go over and support the strongest contender (for a hefty consideration of course), like it happened in Shiroda during the 2019 by-polls, when the entire Congress Shiroda Block along with their friends, families and supporters joined the BJP’s candidate Subhash Shirodkar (a former Congressman himself).

The Congress lost nearly a thousand or even 1500 votes in Shiroda, because of this last minute rebellion, only because they didn’t play their cards well and selected an imported, weak, egoistic candidate who didn’t command the loyalty and respect of local Congress workers in the constituency and couldn’t keep the local Congress team in his good books.

Besides, the Congress state leadership announced the candidate at the last minute, giving the party state setup no time to resurrect itself and form a new team, after its Block rebelled.

Hence, the Congress which otherwise had hundreds, if not thousands of loyal voters in the Shiroda constituency, could not even get 15 percent of the votes polled there, during the 2019 by-polls, ending up with a shameful tally of some 2200 votes.