The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Goa Forward Party have officially formed an alliance named ‘Goa First’ to contest the upcoming Goa assembly elections. This announcement was made on Sunday, marking a significant political development ahead of the elections.
“Up to now the people did not have an option apart from the Congress and the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]. This is the first time the people have Goa First as an option, which is a non-BJP, non-Congress alliance, a formidable alliance,” Kejriwal added. “This alliance is an alternative to a government that is without ideology, a government that is made up of defectors. The loyal Congress voter and the loyal BJP voter have been cheated. We don’t want the people of Goa to be cheated for a third time. They only needed four seats. They imposed President’s rule for a year. They tried their best to take four of our MLAs. For a year they were unable to break our MLAs and unable to form a government.
Because of defection and the people of Goa have been cheated, goa has got a bad name. Because he voted for the Congress, the Congress voter has been cheated. “Our party contested its first election in 2013. We set up in 2012 and in our first election we won 28 seats out of 70. BJP had 32, they needed 36. Elections had to be held again and we won 67 seats,” Kejriwal said. Sardesai said the whole party deciding to change sides did not fall under the definition of a ‘defection’ and that despite having offers in 2022 he chose not to join the ruling alliance since he had a pre poll alliance with the Congress.
Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who addressed a joint press conference with Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai, said the alliance was necessary since “the people of Goa have been deceived twice and are not in a mood to be deceived again. Sardesai said the alliance is of like-minded parties that wish to defeat the BJP and have no faith that Congress MLAs will not defect to the BJP, as they did twice in the past. We don’t want a hat-trick which has been predicted by the people of Goa at large,” Sardesai said.
“The people who are fed up with the BJP but do not want to vote for the Congress have the option of voting for this alliance,” Kejriwal said.
