JOIN USAfter months of negotiations and mixed signals from Maharashtrawardi Gomantak Party (MGP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) finally struck a pre-poll tie-up with the regional party here.
BJP president Nitin Gadkari who flew into Goa to announce the tie-up on Sunday described the MGP as his party’s natural ally and said the electoral understanding spelt a coming together of anti-Congress forces.
The BJP will contest 31 seats (out of 40) and the MGP 8. The alliance has left one seat to independent contestant and former Congress minister Nirmala Sawant. The MGP pulled out of the Congress-led government ahead of the announcement. Dominated by self-serving politics of the Dhavlikar brothers, Ramkrishna and Dipak, the MGP has negotiated for Tivim, Madkai, Priol, Ponda, Quepem, Dabolim, Nuvem and Benaulim seats. The party had won two seats in 2007 and a lot hinges on its performance in this election for the MGP to survive.
The BJP-MGP tie-up is likely to result in a polarised fight between saffron camp and the Congress-NCP alliance.