Shiv Sena and NCP Join Hands Ahead of Goa Assembly Polls

The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party announced an alliance for the Goa Assembly elections on Wednesday.

NCP’s Praful Patel and Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut addressed a joint press conference at Bambolim on Wednesday.

(Photo Courtesy: PRINT-130)

The Shiv Sena and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) announced an alliance for the upcoming Goa Assembly elections on Wednesday, 19 January.

According to an NDTV report, NCP leader Praful Patel said that they support like-minded parties with secular thought. “Following this ideology, the MVA [Maha Vikas Aghadi] government was formed in Maharashtra with Congress and Shiv Sena, which is running smoothly. We wanted the same in Goa," he said.

"NCP and Shiv Sena will jointly fight Goa polls. We made an offer to Congress to jointly contest Goa polls but in vain. They neither said yes nor no. Congress thinks that it can fight the Goa election alone."

Praful Patel, NCP leader

Patel said that the Congress party did not give the NCP enough respect by ignoring them. He said that they had made an offer to the Congress but they did not reply, adding that the Congress thinks that it can fight the Goa election alone.

Goa elections are scheduled to be held on 14 February, in a single phase. The counting of votes will take place on 10 March.

He said that the alliance would not fight all 40 seats, but a considerable number. Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut added that the alliance would win a significant number of seats, making them a ‘kingmaker.’

He said, “In Goa there is a lot of confusion on the ground. There are BJP, Congress, TMC, AAP and other parties and in this overall confusion, NCP and Shiv Sena, though we may not be in a position to form a government, will have a respectable number of seats where we will have an important role to play in formation of a like-minded government.”

He added that the first candidate list for the Goa polls is likely to be released on Thursday, followed by the other lists.

In the 2017 and 2012 Assembly polls, the NCP and the Congress had an alliance. The Shiv Sena has not won a single seat in Goa despite several attempts.