the goan I network
PANAJI
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) President Deepak Dhavalikar on Thursday announced that he would be contesting the Shiroda by-poll. He announced the same after an MGP meeting held at the party’s office in Panaji. Deepak, brother of PWD Minister Sudin Dhavalikar, stressed several times to media persons that he was contesting the polls only to send out a strong message to all 40 MLAs that defection was not acceptable.
“We are fighting against defection. Goa is a small state, and there should not be continuous defections in Goa. Somewhere this has to stop,” said Deepak.
“If we succeed in this fight, then every MLA will think ten times before defecting,”
he added.
Deepak however said that MGP being an alliance partner of the BJP, and currently being a part of the government, held no bearing on the MGP contesting the by-polls. When asked about this, his reponse was, “We are not threatening the government. We are threatening neither the BJP nor the Congress.”
When asked if the current government was a failure, Deepak said that that was something that the next elections, and not him, to tell. “He is running the government with 22 MLAs,” said Deepak referring to the CM, adding that there was nothing wrong in fighting against the BJP.
The MGP had earlier taken the matter of ex-MLAs Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte’s leaving the Congress to join the BJP to the High Court of Bombay in Goa, where they lost the case.
