Goemkarponn desk
PANAJI: The AAP and Congress are on a collision course again over the sharing of seats for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, with the Arvind Kejriwal-led party on Tuesday announcing its MLA as the nominee of the INDIA alliance for the South Goa seat, currently represented by the Grand Old Party.
Goa state Aam Aadmi Party president Amit Palekar said the party has decided to field Benaulim MLA Venzy Viegas from South Goa and sought to blame Congress for the apparent delay in picking a candidate.
“The last meeting of the INDIA alliance was held 30 days back, but after that leaders of Congress became busy. Against this backdrop, the AAP has decided to field the party leader as the INDIA alliance candidate from the South Goa constituency,” Palekar told reporters.
Caught off-guard, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) chief Amit Patkar questioned the “premature” announcement, given that seat-sharing talks are being finalised in New Delhi.
“I don’t know why AAP’s Goa president convened a premature press conference to announce a candidate and that too for South Goa seat represented by Congress MP Francisco Sardinha,” Patkar said in a statement.
Leaders of the INDIA alliance are holding discussions and a decision on contesting seats in various states would be taken by them in Delhi, he added.
AAP leader Palekar, meanwhile, appealed to other parties in the Opposition to support Viegas.
During his visit to Goa in January, AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal had said that his party was discussing a Goa seat as a part of the INDIA alliance.
“Whatever discussion that takes place, do vote for the INDIA alliance candidate in the Lok Sabha elections,” Kejriwal had said while addressing a public meeting in the Benaulim assembly segment.
South Goa is one of the two Lok Sabha seats in Goa currently represented by Francisco Sardinha of Congress.
In the 2019 general elections, Elvis Gomes of AAP finished third by bagging 20,891 votes behind Sardinha and Narendra Sawaikar, who contested on the BJP ticket.
South Goa constituency has remained more or less loyal to Congress, but the 2019 assembly elections changed the political landscape, with BJP winning 12 of the 20 assembly segments and Congress two.
Notably, AAP on Tuesday said it wants to contest six seats in Delhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls and offer just one to Congress, days after Kejriwal told a gathering in Punjab that his party will announce candidates for 13 seats in Punjab and one Chandigarh parliamentary seat.
