BJP exploring Neri & UGDP
Sandesh Prabhudesai
1 June 2002
The Bharatiya Janata Party, having emerged
as a single largest party in the state Assembly elections,
is heading towards forming a coalition government.
Chief minister Manohar Parrikar has already
staked claim to form the government.
Having short of numbers, he has told Governor
Mohammed Fazal that he will prove the majority on the floor
of the House.
In the 40-member Assembly, the BJP is now
having 17 seats while Parrikar has already claimed that
independent MLA Philip Neri Rodrigues, the former minister
in the BJP government, has supported him.
Rodrigues also admitted that he is presently
inclined towards the BJP, but would prefer to sit with his
fingers crossed.
According to BJP spokesman Subhash Salkar,
talks have already begun with other regional parties like
the United Goans Democratic Party with three MLAs and the
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party with two.
"We have already struck an alliance with
the parties and it will be announced once the modalities
are finalised", he said, but declined to name any party
in particular.
Parrikar said he also would not mind seeking
support of sole Nationalist Congress Party MLA Dr Wilfred
de Souza. "They have all emerged victorious by defeating
the Congress, thus supporting us becomes natural", he adds.
Though none of the MGP leader was available
for comments, the UGDP is sitting tonight to take a final
decision on whom to support. "We will not express our support
to any party unless we sit and decide", said Prashant Naik,
the UGDP spokesman.
The Congress, though said earlier that
it will stake claim, met the governor and requested him
to take any decision in the right earnest, but only after
consulting all the parties.
Luizinho Faleiro, the former opposition
leader, however said he has already started contacting people
from other parties to seek their support to form the government.
With the Congress lying low, it appears
that the BJP could form the government if the UGDP comes
forward to be part of the coalition government. Sources
in the UGDP confirm that the mood in the party is not to
go with the Congress, their prime rival in the elections.
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