Goa Polls: After Feelers To Congress, TMC Says AAP Also Part Of Anti-BJP Faction

The Trinamool Congress Party's Goa desk in-charge Mahua Moitra on Saturday said that the party will do “whatever necessary” to ensure that BJP does not form the next government in the coastal state and added that even the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is part of the anti-BJP space, an assertion viewed as a strategy by the Mamata Banerjee-led party to project itself as the anti-BJP pivot.

Elections are due in Goa next month.  Addressing a press conference in Panaji, Moitra also said that "no ego is involved in doing anything" (to ensure BJP's defeat). "The TMC wants to defeat BJP and will do whatever necessary. We want to ensure that BJP does not win or form a government through the backdoor,” Moitra said when asked about a possible pre-poll alliance with the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Congress. On Saturday, she said, “The AAP is also part of the anti-BJP space. I may not have added them in the tweet. We are also including them,” she said, adding that “nothing is impossible in politics.”

Notably, the AAP leadership had asserted in the past that the Arvind Kejriwal-led party won't tie up with the TMC for Goa polls. Stating that no discussion is held yet on pre-poll alliances, Moitra said, “this is a general view that we (TMC) are putting forward the people of Goa.” Without naming Congress, Moitra said it was wrong to term TMC a "B team "of BJP which wants to divide votes in Goa and give extra mileage to BJP. “It is wrong to say that BJP will manage to win because of the TMC,” she said.

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) had announced it would contest the forthcoming Assembly elections in an alliance with the TMC, the new entrant in Goa politics. The Congress and the Goa Forward Party had also sealed a pre-poll alliance. After the Assembly polls in 2017, the GFP, which had won three seats, extended support for the formation of the BJP-led state government under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar. But after Parrikar''s death in 2019, the alliance turned sour and resulted in the Sardesai-led party withdrawing its support.

In that election, the Congress had emerged as the single-largest party in Goa by winning 17 seats in the 40-member House, but could not come to power as the BJP, which bagged 13, allied with some independents and regional parties to form the government.

With inputs from PTI.