With Exit Polls, Goa Heats Up: A Key PM Meeting, Small Parties Are Big

New Delhi:
Two days before the state election results, the race for power in Goa is off to a flying start with big BJP meetings today after exit polls predicted no clear winner in the state.

Here are the top 10 developments on Goa assembly polls:

  1. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is in Delhi to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and brief him about the party’s prospects of retaining power in Goa. Mr Sawant will later fly to Mumbai for a meeting with the BJP’s Goa in-charge, Devendra Fadnavis.

  2. The BJP is believed to have opened talks with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and independents. Sources say the MGP is not inclined to back Pramod Sawant, who had dropped the party from the Goa cabinet after taking over as Chief Minister following Manohar Parrikar’s death in 2019.

  3. Sources say the MGP and other parties have hinted that their support will come for a price – the Chief Minister’s post. The BJP may face the question of sacrificing Mr Sawant for the sake of numbers.

  4. The Congress has signalled a massive shift by saying it is open to an alliance with Arvind Kejriwal’s (AAP) and the Trinamool – both bitter rivals in states like Delhi and Bengal.

  5. “We are open to an alliance with any party that opposes the BJP. We are open to alliance with the Trinamool Congress and AAP or anyone who is against the BJP in Goa,” Congress leader and Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao told NDTV.

  6. Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, which debuted in Goa in this election, has been given three seats by exit polls, which suggests a vital role for the party in the numbers game. The Trinamool has an alliance with the MGP.

  7. The poll of exit polls after the end of voting yesterday showed a neck-and-neck fight in Goa. Both the BJP and the Congress are likely to win 16 of the state’s 40 seats, falling short of the majority mark of 21, according to NDTV’s poll of exit polls.

  8. Goa is replaying the 2017 scenario, when the Congress, single-largest, failed to take power and the BJP scored the support of smaller parties, including the MGP, and independent MLAs.

  9. Not taking a chance this time, the Congress has despatched P Chidambaram and its Karnataka firefighter DK Shivakumar to Goa to negotiate with potential “kingmakers”. Congress leaders have also been sent to other states expecting a close verdict.

  10. Mr Chidambaram has been camping in Goa for the past few days and has been given a free hand to take all possible decisions for corralling support. In the last election, the Congress was late in stitching up an alliance to make up the shortfall to majority.

See also  A Parrikar Supporter and RSS Loyalist, Pramod Sawant Set For 2nd Tenure as Goa CM


Source link

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *