Congress to tie up with NCP for Goa polls

The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party will be forging an alliance for the forthcoming state legislative assembly elections in Goa, a senior NCP leader said on Wednesday.

"The alliance will happen. The Congress and the NCP are both keen to have an alliance for Goa elections," NCP Goa Observer Bharati Chawan said after the meeting.

She also rubbished all the doubts raised in this regard by a few local leaders.

Congress leaders had said that the party can go alone in the state without the NCP.

Chawan said both the parties today decided to make an assessment of each others' candidates before zeroing in on the final list of candidates.

"The alliance is a certainty in Goa and now we have to decide on the candidates. Finally, the moto is to gain power in the state. For that, alliance partners should be ready for any kind of adjustments," she said.

The meeting was attended by All India Congress Committee Goa Observer Jagmeet Singh Brar, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat, NCP Goa Chief Surendra Sirsat and others.

Chawan said the discussions were satisfactory. "We stand by our demands for 12 of the 40 seats. But we are ready to adjust considering the winnability criteria," she said.

Earlier in the day, the Congress had said that they were looking out for alliance between Congress-NCP and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which are currently in the ruling coalition.

Brar had said that the Congress-NCP alliance is a national decision and as far as the MGP is concerned, the party was examining all the prospects.