BJP will win Goa polls irrespective of any alliance, says state president Tanavade

The BJP on Monday said it will win the upcoming Assembly elections in Goa on its own even if all opposition parties contest together, hours after the regional Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MGP announced an alliance with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress.

The BJP on Monday said it will win the upcoming Assembly elections in Goa on its own even if all opposition parties contest together, hours after the regional Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) announced an alliance with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress. Notably, after the 2017 Goa assembly polls, the BJP, despite winning only 13 seats in the 40-member House compared to 17 bagged by Congress, could come to power on the support of two regional parties, namely MGP and Goa Forward Party (GFP). Recently, the GFP, led by Vijai Sardesai, allied with Congress to contest the Assembly polls in Goa, due in February next year. BJP had in the past admitted that it was in talks with MGP for a pre-poll alliance.

''BJP is not depending on the division of votes to win the polls. When we face elections, we think that it is BJP versus the rest of others," BJP Goa unit president Sadanand Shet Tanavade told reporters.

Tanavade said the electoral results in the past suggested that BJP emerges victorious notwithstanding all opposition parties contesting against the saffron party. "We have seen all the parties coming together for the Zilla Panchayat elections in Goa. We won 33 out of 50 seats," he said.

Similarly, BJP had won 10 out of the 12 municipal councils. "In the 2022 elections also, we will win on our own whether there is an alliance or not," he said. In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, the Congress had won the highest 17 seats in the 40-member House restricting the BJP at 13. However, the BJP allied with GFP and MGP to form a government under the late Manohar Parrikar. The GFP had won three seats. The MGP, which had won three seats, is currently left with only one MLA after two of its legislators joined the ruling BJP.

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