BJP will win Goa Assembly polls with comfortable majority: Fadnavis

PANAJI, (PTI): The BJP will win the Goa Assembly polls next year with a “comfortable majority”, newly-appointed state election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis said on Monday.

He also said that a decision on pre-poll alliance with like-minded parties will be taken by the BJP’s parliamentary board.

Fadnavis is currently in Goa along with Union ministers G Kishan Reddy and Darshana Jardosh, both co-in-charges for the Goa polls, and holding a series of meetings to decide the strategy for the state elections due next year.

The BJP is confident of winning the forthcoming Goa elections with a “comfortable majority” due to the development works undertaken by the Pamod Sawant-led government in the state and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government at the Centre, Fadnavis said at a press conference here.

To a query, he said the BJP will fight the Goa polls unitedly and ”clinch a historic win”.

In the 2017 polls to the 40-member Goa Assembly, the Congress won the highest 17 seats, restricting the BJP to 13.

However, surprising the Congress, the saffron party allied with regional parties and independents and came to power under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar.

Fadnavis said the BJP will miss the presence of former state chief minister Manohar Parrikar, who died in 2019.

”But, at the same time, I would like to mention that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has ably handled the state administration after Parrikar’s death,” the former Maharashtra CM said.

To a question, Fadnavis said the decision on pre-poll alliance with like-minded parties will be taken by party’s parliamentary board.

He also said that the announcement of the next chief ministerial face will be made at the right time. “The forthcoming Goa elections would be fought under the leadership of Pramod Sawant,” he added.

Asked about the induction of 10 Congress MLAs into the BJP in Goa two years back, Fadnavis said it is for the opposition party to introspect why its leaders were having trust in the BJP.

On the national front, he said, there has largely been a trust deficit in the Congress with its own leadership. He pointed out that there has been a demand make Rahul Gandhi as the Congress’s full time president.

Currently, Sonia Gandhi is the party’s interim president.

“While on one side, the BJP has a prime minister like Narendra Modi who is thinking only about the country round-the-clock, on the other hand, we have a party like the Congress which is asking for a full time president,” Fadnavis said.

Responding to a question, Fadnavis welcomed an inquiry into ‘Jalyukta Shivar’, the flagship micro-irrigation scheme started in Maharashtra when he was the CM.

The BJP leader said a probe into the scheme was started during his own regime.

“I welcome any kind of inquiry into the scheme. The high court had formed a committee of IITians which has given a positive report about the scheme,” he said.

Fadnavis said out of four lakh works under the scheme, there were complaints in some 600 projects. (PTI)