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Congress, MGP may merge in Goa

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party might merge with the ruling Congress party in Goa, hints former Union minister and MGP leader Ramakant Khalap.

"To fight the emerging force of the BJP, all the like-minded and secular forces have to work together," says Khalap, who presently heads the MGP's legislative wing.

He also does not deny the possibility of his contesting the coming Lok Sabha elections on a Congress ticket, though neither he nor Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro want to commit anything on this count.

"The decision would be taken at appropriate time," says Faleiro.

The Congress sources, however, confirm that the modalities worked out by All India Congress Committee general secretary Madhavrao Scindia in New Delhi with Khalap include at least one cabinet berth for the MGP besides a LS poll ticket for Khalap.

Faleiro, however, denies that it is an attempt to counter rebellion within the ruling party, which enjoys the support of 24 legislators in the 40-member house. Two more were added to the ruling benches a fortnight ago, thanks to the merger of the United Goans Democratic Party with the Congress.

As Scindia has hinted that not more than two members should be added to the state ministry, Faleiro fears a rebellion in the party. Speculation is rife that one of the two berths would go to a former UGDP man (the other would go to the MGP, if the merger is effected), leaving at least nine Congress aspirants high and dry.

With the Congress-MGP tie-up, the strength of the opposition has been reduced to 12 -- 10 of the Bharatiya Janata Party and two of the Goa Rajiv Congress including former chief minister Wilfred de Souza.

Faleiro describes it as a "progressive, matured and well-thought decision" by the MGP while Khalap claims it would further strengthen the government, ending the instability haunting the state since 1990.

But the merger would materialise only after the ongoing monsoon assembly session ends, sources say.

Though Khalap claims that his party was taken into confidence, several MGP leaders have opposed the move. "We will fight till the end to maintain our party's independent identity," says MGP chief Surendra Sirsat who has been sidelined.

Confusion also prevails among the Congress legislators, who now speak of toppling the one-month-old government if they are not accommodated in the cabinet. Even the Goa Pradesh Congress Committee members are angry since they have not been consulted. Incidentally, Faleiro also heads the PCC.

Following the election of Eduardo Faleiro to the Rajya Sabha on Monday, the next challenge before the ruling party is to win both the Lok Sabha seats in the September 4 elections.

"The unholy alliance of the Congress and the MGP would ultimately help us," claims state BJP president Suresh Amonkar.

Manohar Parrikar, the state opposition leader, goes a step ahead and claims that disgruntled Congress legislators, who have been left out of the cabinet, would support his party candidates in the elections.

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