Talks with Congress fail, Sena-NCP to contest Goa polls without party

After the collapse of seat-sharing talks with the Congress for the Goa assembly elections, the Shiv Sena is girding its loins to contest the polls in an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)

Mumbai After the collapse of seat-sharing talks with the Congress for the Goa assembly elections, the Shiv Sena is girding its loins to contest the polls in an alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). The two parties are likely to formalise their alliance for the coastal state on January 19, and the Sena may contest 15 seats.

The two parties are likely to formalise their alliance for the coastal state on January 19, and the Sena may contest 15 seats (ANI)

Earlier, the Shiv Sena was eager to replicate a Maharashtra Vikas Aghadi (MVA)-like an experiment in Goa with the Congress and NCP to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

“The NCP and Shiv Sena are in an alliance in Maharashtra and the Congress is also with us. But in Goa, they seem to have some issues with seat-sharing. Our talks were going on well, but this (alliance) could not happen. The NCP’s talks with them to have been unfruitful. But this does not mean we will not contest the elections,” said Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut.

Jitesh Kamat, Shiv Sena state unit chief, Goa, said their talks with the Congress hit a roadblock over the seats to be shared. “The Congress was offering seats like Priol, Porvorim, Pernem, and Sanvordem, while we were eager to contest from Mapusa and Siolim, where our workers have been active for the past five years,” he explained.

He charged that the politics of Goa revolved around 10 to 12 individuals, who often jumped ship from one party to another, were corrupt and had links with the land and drugs mafias. The BJP had recently inducted those with links to the drugs mafia, added Raut.

“We want that the voters of Goa must elect the common people who contest the elections. We will put up candidates from among the people,” he stated, adding that the late Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray had similarly given leadership opportunities to those from the masses. Raut also took a swipe at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal for conducting door-to-door campaigns for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Goa, while Covid-19 cases in his state were rising.

Despite Goa bordering Maharashtra and the cultural and historic links between the two states, the Shiv Sena has not been able to secure a political opening in the coastal state.

In 2017, the Sena fought the assembly elections in an alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Goa Suraksha Manch (GSM), floated by veteran Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) hand Subhash Velingkar, but was severely drubbed in all three seats that it fought from. The only face-saver for the alliance was the victory of the MGP, which has an organic base in the Hindus, on three seats, though the party supported the BJP soon after. The Sena’s foray in the 2012 Goa assembly elections had also come a cropper.

Political analyst Hemant Desai noted that the Shiv Sena and the NCP had little presence on the ground in Goa, and the NCP’s lone MLA and Benaulim strongman Churchill Alemao had shifted to the Trinamool Congress. The Shiv Sena made little attempts to create an organic base in Goa, unlike the AAP. The political developments in Goa are less likely to impact the fate of the MVA in Maharashtra.