PANAJI: Goa Forward Party (GFP), on Thursday, said that the Congress party by declining to forge an alliance with other parties has increased the difficulty level for Goa and Goans for a political change in 2017.
Addressing the media at the party office in Panaji, GFP president Prabhakar Timble said that the GFP had pressed for an alliance with the Congress party to honour the feedback from the people of Goa, and added that opposition unity is critical to oust the BJP from power. “The stand of the Congress party as communicated through the media, closing the doors for any alliance is nothing but disrespect to the sane advice of Goans. The Congress party has increased the difficulty level for Goa and Goans who are crying for a political change in 2017,” he said.
He said that the expectation of the Congress party that those who oppose the BJP should join the Congress party is an evidence of dictatorship of the national party and muscle twisting which is not acceptable to GFP.
Speaking further, Timble said, “The stand of the Congress party has now cast a larger responsibility on Goa Forward. We will in no way react in a rash manner or attempt to score brownie points with tit for tat. Goa Forward Party will assess its constituency-wise winnability quotient vis-a-vis other anti-BJP candidates and parties in the choice of seats to oust the BJP from power.”
The GFP president further said that the party’s executive committee would be meeting soon to decide on the candidates for the forthcoming election.
“We will have to contest at least 18 – 20 seats,” he added. When asked if the party is willing to align with the Goa Suraksha Manch, Timble said that the GFP would not like to form an alliance with a party which is contesting on a negative agenda of depriving grants to English-medium primary schools.
“And, we do not adhere to that idea. Secondly, they are foundationally RSS, and we do not know if we can depend upon them. Therefore, we just can’t associate with it,”he added.
He further said that the choice of candidates by the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) will determine the possibility of an alliance.
“We will have to see if the choice of their candidates will affect our core ideology,” he said.