MGP keen on allying with AAP for 2022 Goa Assembly polls

Panaji, Aug 3 (SocialNews.XYZ) The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, one of Goa's oldest regional parties, is keen on an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party, its leader Sudin Dhavalikar said on Tuesday.

Addressing a press conference, Dhavalikar, whose brother Deepak heads the outfit, also said that discussions were on with the AAP's central leadership over a possible alliance for the 2022 Assembly polls, but a deal hadn't been clinched yet.

"If we do opt for an alliance, it will be with a good party. There is no way we will align with either the BJP or the Congress. The AAP has discussed with me. We have not decided anything yet. They (AAP) have invited us -- the committee -- to go to Delhi, see the work that they have done and then we can again have a discussion," he said.

The first signs of a possible tie-up between the MGP, which held sway in state politics from the 1960s to the 1980s, and the AAP which failed to win a single Assembly seat in the 2017 elections, emerged after Kejriwal met Sudin Dhavalikar during his two-day visit to the state last month.

Over the last two decades, MGP has tied up with both the Congress as well as the Bharatiya Janata Party to form ruling alliances in the state.

The regional party, however, received a rude shock in 2019, after the emergence of Pramod Sawant as Chief Minister, when Sudin Dhavalikar, who served as a Deputy Chief Minister in the Manohar Parrikar government, was sacked from his post.

Subsequently, two out of the three MGP MLAs also split from the parent party to join the BJP.

Source: IANS