The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today said that they will jointly contest the Goa Assembly Elections 2022. Addressing a media briefing along with Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut, NCP leader Praful Patel said that the Congress did not respond to their alliance offer. Patel said that the Sena-NCP alliance will not contest on all 40, but on a ‘substantial number’ of seats. He added that they will release their first list of candidates tomorrow.
“We made an offer to Congress to jointly contest Goa polls, but in vain. They neither said yes nor no… NCP and Shiv Sena will jointly fight Goa polls. Not all 40 seats but a substantial number of them. The first list of candidates may be released tomorrow followed by other lists,” said Patel.
The Congress has already allied with Goa Forward Party for the state assembly polls and would have to cede more seats to the NCP-Shiv Sena in case of an alliance. The Congress has also refused to ally with the TMC.
Speaking to the media, Raut said that they wanted an MVA-like alliance in Goa as well but it did not work. Senior Shiv Sena leaders had met Rahul Gandhi in the past to discuss the Goa alliance but that has not yielded any result.
This time, Goa is already witnessing a new entrant as TMC which has allied with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). The Aam Aadmi Party is also contesting all the 40 seats. The Congress has accused the AAP and the TMC of contesting Goa polls for division of votes that will ultimately help the BJP.
Congress leader P Chidambaram had maintained that Goa will either vote for the BJP or for a regime change.
