Girish says Congress will decide on MGP support soon

PANAJI: Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) has conveyed its willingness to align itself with the Congress in the next assembly elections, said state Congress president Girish Chodankar. He said the party would discuss the proposal at appropriate time.
He said the party ‘welcomed’ the offer of support from MGP MLA Ramkrishna Dhavalikar but did not elaborate on the contours of such an alliance.
“Definitely, our party will take a decision once we discuss it internally,” Chodankar said.
The MGP had an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2012 and entered into a post-poll alliance with it after the 2017 state assembly elections. However, the two parties have shared a frayed relationship, and after the midnight merger of two MGP MLAs with the BJP, Dhavalikar had made overtures to Congress.
“MGP has already spoken to me and they have supported our candidates,” Chodankar said.
Congress’ Tivim MLA Nilkanth Halarnkar attempted to downplay the development by pointing out that elections in the state were a long way off.
“There are more than two years left and a lot can change in the two years. Many things can change in these two years,” Halarnkar said.
Chodankar also took potshots at BJP for continuing to lie to people about 10 Congress MLAs ready to join BJP.
“For starters, if the proposal of 10 Congress MLAs joining the BJP was rejected by the national leadership, then first it must have been discussed at the state level. If 10 Congress MLAs went to discuss this with BJP, people in Goa would have noticed,” Chodankar said.
He also claimed that the casino industry exercised control over BJP and the government.
“When elections come, BJP talks about removing casinos and after that the government claims that Goa needs casinos. BJP opposes casinos to get elected, and later after winning the elections, BJP supports the casinos,” Chodankar said.