PANAJI
The two legislators of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) “ Velim MLA Cruz Silva and Benaulim MLA, Venzy Viegas “ on Thursday made public that their party harbours a deep distrust in the Congress on the issue of stitching up alliances and electoral tie-ups.
The two MLAs made the comments even accusing the Congress of “backstabbing” citing the Delhi elections earlier this year on the sidelines of Thursday’s special session of the Goa Legislative Assembly where the BJP’s Sanvordem MLA Ganesh Gaonkar was elected the new Speaker.
Silva also expressed strong displeasure at the remarks against AAP made by the Congress’ national leader Devendra Yadav.
The two AAP legislators said they supported the candidature of the Congress’ Altone D’Costa for the speaker’s post on Thursday “under protest” and to keep to the prior commitment they had made vis-a-vis the election.
Both Silva and Viegas had seconded the two separate motions moved by Leader of the Opposition and Carlos Alvares-Ferreira proposing that D’Costa be elected to the Speaker’s post. The motions were submitted to the Legislature Secretary three weeks ago.
AAP had joined hands with the Congress in the INDIA bloc ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha election across the nation. In Goa, it gave up the claim it had staked to the South Goa Lok Sabha seat by announcing the candidature of Viegas. The seat was eventually won by the alliance with Congress’ Viriato Fernandes emerging victorious.
Thursday’s comments of the two AAP MLAs, meanwhile, pours cold water on the prospects of an united Opposition to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the 2027 assembly elections and comes weeks after the AAP officially pulled out of the INDIA bloc at the national level.
