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Arvind Kejriwal meets MGP’s Dhavalikar brothers, sparks AAP’s Goa alliance buzz
MGP’s Sudin Dhavalikar said his meeting with AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal was just a ‘courtesy’ visit since they hadn’t met for a long time to appreciate each other’s ‘good work’.
PANAJI: Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal met Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) chief Sudin Dhavalikar at a city hotel on Tuesday, sparking buzz that the two parties could deliberate on a possible alliance or an arrangement ahead of the state elections in early 2022.
Kejriwal, who is staying at a hotel in the Dona Paula locality of the capital city, spent most of the day holding a series of meetings with the local party leaders. In between, he also met the Dhavalikar brothers, Ramkrishna “Sudin” Dhavalikar and his younger brother Pandurang “Deepak” Dhavalikar, who play the lead role in the MGP.
Kejriwal last year announced his party’s decision to contest assembly elections in states such as Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Gujarat. There has been no word from Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) if it will join hands with local parties in Goa. Kejriwal didn’t speak with the media on Tuesday but will address a Press conference on Wednesday.
AAP state convener Rahul Mhambre only referred to the internal meetings. “There were a series of meetings lined up with the local leadership of the AAP including one-on-one meetings,” he told HT.
Sudin Dhavalikar insisted his meeting with Kejriwal was just a courtesy call. “There is nothing on that as yet. This was just a courtesy visit,” Sudin Dhavalikar said to repeated questions about speculation around his meeting with Kejriwal.
“There is nothing about an alliance. We discussed the good work he has done and the good work I have done with regard to water supply in Goa,” Sudin said.
“For a long time we had not met each other... now for two months because of corona we had not met. He had even come to Goa once (recently) but we couldn’t meet. I was supposed to go to Delhi but I didn’t get the time,”
Sudin Dhavalikar’s MGP was once a powerful regional party that ruled Goa for the first three decades after its liberation in 1961, giving Goa its first chief minister Bhausaheb Bandodkar. The MGP, which had a dedicated support base among the state’s politically powerful Bahujan Samaj, however, has lost much of its sheen. The party has managed to become a part of every government in Goa between 1999 and 2019 when Sudin Dhavalikar was left stranded.
The MGP’s three MLAs played a key role in helping the BJP capture power in Goa despite winning only 13 seats in the 40-member house. Pramod Sawant, who took charge of the state after Manohar Parrikar’s death, inducted Sudin Dhavalikar as deputy chief minister on 17 March 2019 but stripped him of his portfolios within a week. Dhavalikar’s two MLAs also defected to the Bharatiya Janata Party government led by Sawant. The MGP, which had three MLAs, was left with just one, Sudin Dhavalikar.
Earlier this month, Dhavalikar indicated that the MGP was not keen on aligning with either the BJP or Congress, saying that the party was not interested in aligning with national parties ahead of the polls.
