Panaji: The Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) on Tuesday announced its alliance with Goa Forward Party (GFP) for the ZP polls .
Of the 50 seats, Congress has fielded candidates in 36, GFP has put up candidates in nine, and the remaining five will see independent candidates backed by the alliance.
Interestingly, Congress and GFP have fielded candidates against each other in Corlim and Morjim, which GFP president and Fatorda MLA Vijai Sardesai described as a “friendly fight”.
“In North Goa, we have filed 19 nominations, and in South Goa, we have filed nominations in 17 seats. GFP is contesting five seats in the North and four in the South,” said GPCC president Amit Patkar.
Sardesai said, “People want the opposition parties to fight unitedly and defeat BJP. We had plans to make this alliance bigger and grander. However, owing to some reasons, it could not go through.”
On the overlapping candidates in Corlim and Morjim, he said, “These are two different parties with different cadres, and everyone has their expectations and aspirations. Sometimes the local or central units are unable to arrive at an understanding. We have to keep the local units together and still fight without hurting each other.”
On the Revolutionary Goans Party staying out of the alliance and the disagreement over the Santa Cruz seat, which has a sitting Congress ZP member, Patkar said, “In the interest of Goa and Goans, somebody had to take a step back. If all three parties were together, the strike rate would have been better. It was the question of only one seat.”
