South Goa for Cong; no decision on North seat yet
PANAJI
The Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) central leaderships strode closer towards clinching an amicable deal for sharing seats including the two in Goa as part of the INDIA bloc's electoral strategy to fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.
Apart from Delhi and Goa, the two parties which held discussions in Delhi on Thursday have reportedly agreed on seat deals in Haryana and Gujarat.
In Punjab, where the AAP is in power and the Congress is the principal Opposition party, the two parties had already agreed and announced that there will be no alliance and both will fight the Lok Sabha elections separately.
Reports from Delhi suggest that the AAP, which had earlier announced it would field its Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas for the South Goa seat causing much consternation in the Congress camp here in Goa, climbed down for two reasons: one is that the seat was won in 2019 by the Congress' Francisco Sardinha and second more importantly to clinch a seat in Haryana.
However, there is no clear indication on the second seat from Goa – Panaji (North Goa) – and a decision on it is likely to be taken later.
Political sources said the decision of AAP's central leadership to concede the South Goa seat was in exchange for a seat in Haryana.
According to an NDTV report quoting sources involved in the talks, it is unclear which of the two parties will contest the North Goa seat. The North Goa seat has been held by the incumbent Shripad Naik of the BJP since 1999 for five successive terms.
The two parties have also struck a seat share deal in Gujarat where AAP which recently sealed a place for itself in the political space of Modi’s home State by winning five seats in last year’s assembly elections is said to have cornered two parliamentary seats in the alliance. It may also bag a couple of seats in Assam where its State unit made a mark in recent urban body polls.
