New Delhi, Aug 3 (PTI) The Congress on Monday set up a committee for Goa to coordinate among the alliance partners for the upcoming assembly elections and arrive at a seat sharing arrangement.
AICC in-charge of Goa Manikrao Thakare was named as the chairman of the Goa Alliance Committee set up by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Goa Congress chief Girish Chodankar is a member of the six-member panel. Yuri Alemao, Anjali Nimbalkar, Capt. Viriato Fernandes and M K Shaikh are other members of the committee.
The opposition Congress and the Goa Forward Party (GFP) have launched preliminary talks to ally for the 2027 state assembly polls, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also signalling its willingness for a tie-up with like-minded parties.
Talking to PTI on Sunday, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Chodankar said he had held talks with GFP chief Vijai Sardesai on forming an alliance.
The duo met in the Fatorda town of South Goa on Saturday. The Congress and GFP had fought the 2022 assembly polls together.
Chodankar said that the talks on Saturday were preliminary and a decision had to be taken on renewing the alliance.
“We will be meeting again to hammer out and finalise details, including seat sharing,” he said.
On Saturday, AAP Goa president Valmiki Naik held a meeting with the party’s committee formed to decide on a tie-up with like-minded parties.
Polls for the 40-member Goa Assembly are likely to be held in February-March next year.
The BJP is in power in the coastal state with the support of 33 MLAs. While 28 of these legislators belong to the party, three are independents, and two others are from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).
In the 2022 state elections, the BJP had won 20 out of 40 seats. But later, eight Congress MLAs joined the ruling party.
The Congress currently has three MLAs, the AAP has two, while the GFP and the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) have one legislator each.
The ruling BJP in Goa last month announced that it has set a target of winning at least 30 seats in the assembly elections to be at the helm in the coastal state for the fourth consecutive time. PTI ASK KVK KVK
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