The first party mushrooms; two ex-MLAs float Goa Praja Party
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 10 December 2015 20:04 IST
Mushrooming of new political outfits has begun. The first one of the ‘election season’ is being floated by two former ministers – Pandurang Raut and Prakash Fadte.
Both of them, along with around 25 office bearers, are launching Goa Praja Party on 15 December in Panaji, eyeing Assembly election 2017.
“It is a regional party registered with the Election Commission of India almost eight months ago”, Raut told goanews.com.
The GPP has already made plans to contest from at least 12 to 13 constituencies.
With the exception of two former legislators – Raut as its president and Fadte as the general secretary, Raut said most of them would be fresh blood.
Both the politicians have been neighbours – Raut the MGP MLA in 1989 and 1999 of Bicholim and Fadte the BJP MLA in 1999 of Mayem.
They lost all other elections, even when Raut tried in 2012 as Trinamool Congress and Fadte as the UGDP in 2007, besides MGP and BJP respectively.
NO FOR BABUSH
Raut also made it amply clear that Babush Monseratte will not be entertained in the new party.
Babush, it was rumoured, may join the new outfit Raut is planning to float.
Precisely this is the reason, it was said, the St Cruz MLA decided not to join the Nationalist Congress Party, the other possibility that was predicted in political circles.
Babush has been expelled from the Congress for openly aligning with the ruling BJP during municipal election of Corporation of City of Panaji.
In an interview to The Goan, a local daily, Babush had told that he would float a new party.
“That is not our party”, clarified Raut.
OPEN FOR ALLIANCE?
Will the GPP, their new outfit, go alone or is it open for alliance?
“It depends on a situation when election comes close, it’s too premature to predict”, said Raut, the former Bicholim MLA.
However, the GPP president made it clear that the question of having any truck with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party is ruled out.
“The BJP rose up as an ethical party but has been proved a disaster in the last three years with its U turns on practically every promise they made”, said Raut.
They also are not in a mood to touch the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party which made Raut the MLA twice and even a minister once.
“Today’s MGP is only interested in aligning with power, having no ideology of any kind”, quipped the former MGP loyalist.
When asked about the regional party Vijai Sardesai and two other independents plan to float, Raut said: “we are open, but their intention should be clean.”
Comparatively, he sounded little sympathetic to the Congress.
“The Congress was also not a bad party at one time, but they need to improve now”, he opined.
Ideologically, his GPP plans to focus primarily on retaining the cultural image of Goa, which is being eroded with casinos, drugs and prostitution rackets resulting into goondagiri, rape, murders and all kind of crimes.
“Goa is slowly becoming a foreigners’ colony with outsiders acquiring prime land of the state everywhere. It needs to stop somewhere”, he said.
