BJP exploring Neri & UGDP
SANDESH PRABHUDESAI, PANAJI | 01 June 2002 23:23 ISTThe 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.
