Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut on Friday said he agrees with the view expressed by the Trinamool Congress (TMC) that the Congress should be held responsible if the BJP wins the Goa Assembly elections next month and continues to hold power in the state.
He said though the Shiv Sena had submitted a proposal to the Congress to form a pre-poll alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) and the Goa Forward Party (GFP), the oldest party did not respond to its plan.
Raut was talking to reporters after announcing the party’s first list of nine candidates for the February 14 assembly elections. There are total 40 assembly seats in Goa.
TMC leader Abhishek Banerjee had said on Thursday that if the Congress fails to oust the BJP from power in Goa, Congress state in-charge P Chidambaram should take responsibility and resign.
He said the TMC had approached Chidambaram with a formal offer for a pre-poll alliance, but nothing happened in that direction. “I agree with Abhishek Banerjee’s comments. We had also tried to hold talks with Congress. We had a meeting with (Congress leaders) Dinesh Gundu Rao, Digambar Kamat and Girish Chodankar, proposing that Congress, NCP , GFP and Army should form an alliance,” he said.
Raut, however, said that Chidambaram should not be held responsible as he was only executing the decisions taken by his party high command. “The Shiv Sena had presented a proposal to the Congress according to which the Sonia Gandhi-led party would contest 30 seats, while the remaining 10 seats could be distributed among alliance partners including NCP, Shiv Sena and GFP. These are 10 seats. In Goa, where the Congress never won.”
But the Congress did not respond to that proposal, saying the party should introspect. Shiv Sena’s first list of nine candidates includes its state unit chief Jitesh Kamat, who will contest from Mapusa constituency.
The Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha member said, “Our party has a clean image. It will create a history in Goa in this election.”
He said the Shiv Sena will create an “unblemished” history as it will not give ticket to any tainted person like land mafia or terrorists. Another prominent Shiv Sena candidate is Shailendra Velingkar, son of former Goa RSS chief Subhash Velingkar, who will contest from the Panaji assembly constituency.
Raut said his party is ready to support Utpal Parrikar, son of former Goa Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar, if he contests as an independent. Utpal Parrikar was denied ticket by the BJP from the Panaji seat, though he had expressed his desire to contest from that constituency as its candidate.
“If we support Utpal, we will also take an assurance from him that he will not support the BJP if voted to power,” he said. The electoral battle for Goa has turned multi-cornered with the entry of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC and aggressive campaigning by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). Till now, there was an electoral alliance between the regional Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the TMC and the Congress and the GFP.
In the 2017 elections, the Congress emerged as the single largest party in Goa, winning 17 seats in the 40-member House, but could not come to power, as the BJP won 13, forming alliances with some independents and regional parties. Make a government
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