Mumbai: Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday announced a Maharashtra-like political realignment in neighbouring Goa, claiming BJP ally Goa Forward Party is forming an alliance with the Sena in the coastal state.
“Goa Forward Party president and ex-deputy CM of Goa Vijai Sardesai is forming an alliance with the Shiv Sena. A new political front is taking shape in Goa, just like it happened in Maharashtra. Jaldi hi Goa mein bhi aapko ek chamatkar dikhai dega (You will soon witness a miracle in Goa as well),” news agency ANI quoted Raut as saying.
Raut went on to say that efforts to forge a “non-BJP political front” will be taken to other states too. “It will happen across the country. After Maharashtra, it is Goa. Then we will go to other states. We want to make a non-BJP political front in this country.”
The BJP has 27 MLAs in the 40-seat Goa Assembly, while ally GFP has three. The Congress has five, and the NCP and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) have one MLA each. Three independent MLAs are BJP's allies.
After the 2017 polls, a hung assembly had emerged, with Congress winning 17 and BJP 13 seats. But the BJP outsmarted the Congress by cobbling together a coalition quickly. In July this year, 10 Congress MLAs, led by leader of opposition in the assembly, Chandrakant Kavlekar, merged with the ruling BJP.
Raut’s statement comes a day after Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray took oath as Maharashtra CM, capping a month-long saga which saw the Sena break ties with the BJP, forge an alliance with the NCP and Congress, and then thwart an attempt by Ajit Pawar to form government with the BJP.
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