Now the question is, while Congress seems to be in a dominating position, why should it forge an alliance with a party which has no stake in Goa? Why would Congress tie-up with the party which poached its MLAs and leaders?
The TMC’s proposal seems to be an over-optimistic one. The party does not have any base in Goa, and ever since it came to the State three months ago, it has only been involved in poaching or “buying” of MLAs and local leaders.
Surely, the Prashant Kishore strategy has fallen flat in Goa and to overcome this defeat, they are now desperately trying to form a pre-poll alliance with the Congress.
SURAJ NANDREKAR
Editor, Goemkarponn
They bought MLAs, the media houses, the hoarding, and whoever they could; they lured youth and housewives with doles, yet they have failed miserably.
After poaching on several Congress leaders, including two sitting MLAs, the Trinamool Congress seems to be desperate to forge an alliance with the grand old party in a bid to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party in Goa.
Instead of holding formal talks, the two parties have a tweeter war with leaders of both parties involved in a blame game.
TMC MP and Goa desk in-charge of Mahua Moitra was the first to start the war while saying the talks were on with Congress vice president and P Chidambaram has no knowledge of it.
To this, the AICC Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao and Venugopal has given a straightforward reply that the party can defeat the BJP all alone and accused TMC of dividing its votes.
Now the question is, while Congress seems to be in a dominating position, why should it forge an alliance with a party which has no stake in Goa? Why would Congress tie-up with the party which poached its MLAs and leaders?
The TMC’s proposal seems to be an over-optimistic one. The party does not have any base in Goa, and ever since it came to the State three months ago, it has only been involved in poaching or “buying” of MLAs and local leaders.
Surely, the Prashant Kishore strategy has fallen flat in Goa and to overcome this defeat, they are now desperately trying to form a pre-poll alliance with the Congress.
But the party has realised that not just the Congress but the entire Goa has rejected the TMC brand of politics. The exception is some selfish leaders like Luizinho Faleiro, Kiran Kandolkar, Alexio Reginal Lourenco and family raj politicians like Sudin and Deepak Dhavalikar.
Also, in a bid to “woo” Goan voters, they announced a yearly Rs 60k package for Griha Aadhar Scheme. This, too, is indirect bribing. Isn’t it?
However, the TMC theatrics did not work with Goa and Goans. They must first tell Goans whether they have implemented such schemes in Bengal? Do they have schemes DDSSY, DSSS, Ladli Laxmi?
Coming back to alliance talks, after snatching defeat from jaws of victory in 2017, this is Congress best shot at perfect majority, and it joins the Mahagathbandhan at this stage, wherein it is in a dominating position, it would only dash hopes of forming a government on its own. Also, Congress has to study whether the alliance would really help them?
The TMC, indeed, does not have any vote share in Goa, and we have said N number of times banners don’t get you votes.
Mind you, Congress wanted to contest all 40 seats, and some leaders were not even ready for alliance with the Goa Forward. But finally, it agreed after a lot of deliberations.
It is learnt that Congress has decided to give just two seats to Goa Forward that too after a hard bargain.
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