Goa, with an assembly strength of 40 seats, has been politically turbulent and unstable over the years. In the past few decades, despite the big guns like BJP and Congress fighting tooth and nail to rule the coastal state, it has been decided by smaller parties like Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Goa Forward Party (GFP). Form a government or form a government. played an important role in breaking
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Since its independence from Portuguese rule in 1961, Goa has seen 13 chief ministers and 24 governments. In its six decades, Goa has been under President’s rule almost five times.
Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, GFP, Revolutionary Goa Party, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC) will play a key role in deciding the political future of Goa.
While the ruling BJP is confident of retaining power, News18’s poll of polls (exit polls) indicate a hung assembly in the coastal state. Exit polls indicate a one-on-one fight between the BJP and the Congress, but neither of them is getting a clear majority.
This is where local political parties like GFP and MGP will emerge as kingmakers, while AAP and TMC are also expected to count.
MGP is the oldest and indigenous party of Goa. In 1963, when the first government was formed in the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu, the Chief Minister was Dayanand Bandodkar who founded the MGP.
The party remained in power for a decade until the death of Bandodkar. His daughter Sasikala Kakodkar succeeded him and remained the Chief Minister till 1979.
However, the MGP government fell that year, and since then, Goa’s political landscape has largely collapsed.
Defection-torn MGP, which has faced multiple elections, has often been the kingmaker but never again. In 2000, the late Manohar Parrikar, the former CM of Goa, formed his government through a BJP-led coalition government with the MGP. However, Parrikar did not need the MGP for 12 years as he led the BJP to power with an absolute majority.
The MGP once again found its importance in the 2017 assembly election, when the BJP, which had won 13 seats, sought the help of the GFP to help Parrikar come to power. Soon after Parrikar’s death in 2019, his successor Pramod Sawant severed ties with the MGP, alleging anti-party activities.
Sawant removed Sudin Dhavalikar, a senior MGP leader and then deputy CM, after two members of his party joined the BJP.
In the 2022 elections, the MGP had a pre-poll alliance with Mamata Banerjee’s TMC.
Over the years, MGP’s strength in the Goa Legislative Assembly has waned. From having 12 elected MLAs in 1994, the party’s strength reduced to one in 2022. This was the result of two of his MLAs switching to the BJP.
However, it will once again be destined for the Swadeshi Party as it will play a key role in government formation if the results indicate a hung assembly.
Another party, GFP, is one of the youth political organizations of Goa, launched in 2016 by Prabhakar Trimble. Built on the electoral issue of representing a ‘true Goa’ or ‘Goenkapon’, the founders of the GFP had stated that they would form an alliance with any party except the BJP. In 2017, despite campaigning against the BJP during the elections, MLA Vijay Sardesai, who is at the helm of affairs, forged an alliance with the BJP to bring Manohar Parrikar back to power for the fourth time.
Claiming to have been disillusioned and duped by the BJP, the GFP has signed a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in the 2022 elections.
Meanwhile, Goa’s newest and youngest party is the Revolutionary Goa Party (RGP), led by former AAP worker Manoj Parag. The RGP had registered itself with the Election Commission in January this year. It started as a social organization based on fighting to protect the rights of the people of Goa. The RGP has fielded candidates against several stalwarts of the state including Chief Minister Pramod Sawant (from Sankelim) and Health Minister Vishwajit Rane (from Valpoi).
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