Congress-NCP begin coalition parleys ahead of Goa polls

State NCP president Jose Phillip D'Souza said he is "100%" sure that the alliance would be sealed

The central leadership of the Congress and Nationalist Congress Party have resolved to form a coalition for the upcoming assembly polls in Goa. State NCP president Jose Phillip D'Souza said he is "100 per cent" sure that the alliance would be sealed.

D'Souza further said that after receiving a green signal from his party's central leadership, he had an informal meeting with his counterpart, Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar, to set the ball rolling for the formation of an alliance between the two parties.

"We had also spoken to Congress leaders, but finally last night I met Girish. We had a healthy discussion on an alliance. Our central leaders have said that you should start discussion at the local level," the state NCP president said.

"I feel 100 per cent that there will be an alliance. An alliance should happen. If there is no alliance, secular votes will be split... We have given our list of candidates. Let our leaders converse and finalise the list. I hope that the alliance should be finalised before the 25th of this month, so that our candidates get adequate time to campaign for the elections," D'Souza said, adding that the NCP had submitted a list of "7 to 8" constituencies in which the NCP is keen on fielding candidates.

While Goa currently has only one NCP MLA in the 40-member state legislative assembly, the Congress has four MLAs -- 13 Congress MLAs have joined the ruling BJP since 2017.
The alliance between the Congress and the NCP is being viewed by leaders of both parties as a matter of survival, especially fearing that the Aam Aadmi Party and the Trinamool Congress could eat into the anti-BJP vote in the 2022 polls.

State Congress president Girish Chodankar also confirmed that national leaders of the Congress and NCP had met in Delhi recently and cleared the way for local leadership of both parties to start coalition parleys.

"This is election time and national leaders of both parties had a meeting in Delhi. I was conveyed that I should sit with D'Souza and start the talks with him. We met in a hotel in South Goa and started a discussion," Chodankar said.

"In Delhi, a decision has been taken that BJP has to be defeated in Goa and we should use our combined energies and defeat the BJP," he added.

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