PANAJI
A restless Nationalist Congress Party on Wednesday evoked the post-poll fiasco of 2017, with the party's state president Jose Phillip D'Souza demanding quick finalisation of seat-sharing arrangement between the Congress, NCP and other like-minded parties.
Speaking to reporters here, D'Souza also said that the formation of an alliance between the NCP, Congress and other anti-BJP forces was the most important factor leading to the upcoming 2022 assembly polls.
"It is not good to leave it (alliance) till late. If there is a delay, then what happened in 2017, will repeat itself," D'Souza told reporters here.
The spectre of 2017 continues to loom large over opposition parties in Goa if one goes by the comment made by D'Souza.
After failing to seal a formal pre-poll alliance, the non-BJP parties led by the Congress failed to forge a post-poll alliance in time, allowing the BJP to move quickly to ally with the Goa Forward, Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, the Nationalist Congress Party and some independent MLAs. The Congress at the time had emerged as the single largest party in the state legislative assembly with 17 MLAs, while the BJP had 13 MLAs.
D'Souza's comments come at a time when photographs of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Leader of Opposition Digambar Kamat, Goa Forward president Vijai Sardesai, his party MLA Vinod Palyekar and Independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar, holding hands after a meeting with Gandhi went viral, indicating the formation of an opposition alliance.
D'Souza claims that the formation of an alliance was the most critical factor leading to the polls.
"The important thing about the 2022 polls is the formation of our alliance. There will be a lot of problems if there is no alliance. Our leaders have spoken to the Congress leaders and there was a discussion and finally, they said, an alliance is there," the state NCP president said.
While national leaders of both parties have in principle agreed to the formation of an alliance, they have left the state leadership led by D'Souza and state Congress president Girish Chodankar to sort out the nitty-gritty.
D'Souza said that the NCP and Congress should come out openly with the alliance first and then work out the seat-sharing arrangement quickly.
"There are other like-minded parties, Congress, NCP, Goa Forward and all this, but the seat-sharing component has not been done yet. How to carry out seat-sharing, how will the seats be allotted, the leaders are in touch (for this). We have to declare the alliance first," D'Souza said.
The state NCP leader also said that the Congress block in Dabolim had promised to back him, in case the seat went NCP's way in the seat-sharing arrangement.
"I have had a discussion with the (Dabolim) Congress block and they have said, if there is an alliance, we will fully support you. Our like-minded parties are not in place. I have started my movement. I am moving house to house in Dabolim," he said.
