MARGAO
The Team Goa mahagathbandhan proposal to bring all like-minded political parties to defeat the BJP hangs in balance with the Congress Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao promising to deal with the issue at the appropriate time and the Goa Forward making it quite clear that the regional party cannot wait for the Congress for perpetuity to stitch an alliance.
Though no meeting has taken place between the Goa desk in-charge and the Goa Forward Chief Vijai Sardesai as expected in political circles, sources said the duo is believed to have spoken over the phone during Gundu Rao’s three-day visit to the state.
A couple of other Congress emissaries were also reportedly in touch with the Goa Forward Chief, even as Sardesai firmly denied having any meeting with the Congress leaders.
With Gundu Rao pushing the alliance issue to the court of the party high command, the matter, however, may bring the principal opposition party and the regional party face to face. Sardesai has expressed his unhappiness over the decision of the major political player to deal with the alliance issue at a later stage.
Sardesai was clear in saying that the regional party cannot wait in perpetuity for leaders of the opposition party to seal the alliance deal. “As a political party, we will definitely keep our plan B in place to deal with the emerging situation if the Congress does not want to forge an alliance with us,” he told The Goan.
The Goa Forward camp is also keeping its fingers crossed over the Congress leadership issue. With reports emanating from the Congress camp not ruling out the possibility of status quo being maintained in the party, Goa Forward leaders do not see any hope of the alliance deal going through with Girish Chodankar at the helm of affairs.
The Goa Forward Chief had set June end as the time-frame for the Congress to reply to the alliance offer, but the party leadership is not expected to precipitate matters by taking any hasty step in calling off the alliance talks with the principal opposition party or announcing candidates in areas which are perceived as Congress party strongholds.
At the same time, the regional party is expected to tread a cautious path over the alliance with Congress. The Goa Forward chief seems to have not forgotten the bitter past when he was kept waiting by the Congress leaders on two occasions, first for the Congress ticket in 2012 and then over the alliance in 2017.
“I also was part of the Congress organization in the past. I know the working of the party when it comes to alliances. But, we would like to tell leaders of the Congress that the Goa Forward cannot be kept waiting till the last minute on the question of alliance,” Sardesai said, adding that the party will brace up to chart its future course in the coming days by implementing plan B.
