Willy denies front with MGP-Vishwajeet
Sandesh
Prabhudesai
24 January 2008
Dr Wilfred de Souza, the
local Nationalist Congress Party chief, has ruled out any front with the Maharashtrawadi
Gomantak Party and Independent MLA Vishwajeet Rane.
Dr de Souza criticised
the MGP for its announcement that along with Independent Vishwajit Rane it would
function as a political front with the NCP to support the Digambar Kamat government.
MGP
president Pandurang Raut had earlier stated that it had formed a front along with
NCP and Vishwajeet, while extending the party’s unconditional support to
the coalition government.
Describing the statement as “unilateral
and surprising,” Mr. de Souza said that following merger of the two-member
Save Goa Front into the Congress, the pre-poll alliance of Congress-NCP had together
reached a strength of 21 in the 40-member Assembly, a position of “viable
majority” on their own.
According to him, the MGP and United Goans
Democratic Party MLA have been practically rendered “irrelevant.”
“Anybody
who wants to support the government is welcome but where is the need for a new
front.”
He admitted that the MGP and the Independents met the NCP
chief Sharad Pawar in New Delhi during the recent political turmoil in the State
and expressed their desire to work with the NCP to strengthen the government.
He however wass not avert to MGP merging into the NCP, provided their party
leaders toe the NCP policies, including considering Konkani as the sole official
language of Goa.
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