PANAJI
Patel however, didn’t commit on how many seats the party would contest only saying that the final list will be announced by Tuesday night or Wednesday morning and the candidates would have to file their nominations on the same day.
“The Congress party is interested in giving a walkover or indirectly allowing the BJP to gain more ground,” NCP leader Praful Patel told reporters reflecting on the Congress decision not to enter into any alliance with the secular forces especially with the NCP.
Patel said that the NCP was open to an alliance and accepted the invitation when the Congress high command called the party leaders to Delhi for talks.
“It was the responsibility of the Congress to take the initiative for the alliance. We had a meeting in Delhi where we put forward our proposal before the Congress,” Patel says.
However, he said, the Congress did not get back to him and unilaterally announced that it was leaving two seats for the NCP and later withdrew that announcement and only announced “seat adjustment” with the Goa Forward.
“We are very capable of fighting the elections on our own,” Patel said, adding that the party was in the process of finalising its list of candidates and the final list will be finalised a few hours before the nomination closes.
Patel said that the party does not believe in the concept of a “friendly fight” and would not have accepted such a proposal from the “principal opposition party”.
