Eyes on 2022 Assembly polls, BJP national president JP Nadda to visit Goa on July 23-24

Ahead of the Goa Assembly elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national president JP Nadda will be visiting the state on July 23-24. This comes after JP Nadda's two-day visit to Goa was cancelled because he had other engagements in the National Capital. The BJP national president was supposed to visit Goa to hold meetings with different wings of the party in the wake of upcoming Assembly polls.

Goa elections are scheduled to be held in 2022 to elect the 40 member-state Assembly. The term of the current assembly elected in 2017 will expire on March 15, 2022.

Goa elections: AAP vows '87% of Goa to get zero electricity bills'

While BJP and Congress continue to prepare for the upcoming Goa Assembly elections, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) president and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on July 14 promised 4 major power sops for the people in the state. These 4 major power sops include 300 units of free electricity to every household, a promise reiterated by AAP in Punjab and Uttarakhand, which are also going to polls in 2022.  

While addressing a press briefing in Panaji, Kejriwal had stressed that the people of Goa prefer an alternative and contended that thousands of people have promised not to vote for BJP and Congress owing to their "betrayal". Meanwhile, he had also downplayed speculations of an alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party that arose after he met Sudin Dhavalikar. 

Current political situation in Goa

In the 2017 Goa elections, the saffron party had suffered a huge blow due to the absence of its stalwart leader Manohar Parrikar due to his prolonged illness. BJP could only manage to win 12 seats in contrast to Congress, whose candidates had won in 17 constituencies. Even the incumbent CM Kaxmikant Parsekar had failed to retain his own seat in the 2017 Goa elections. As the Goa election results delivered a hung assembly, the role of Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (3 seats), Goa Forward Party (3 seats), 3 Independents and a lone NCP MLA became very crucial. 

Later, in an unexpected turn of events, the Bharatiya Janata Party had staked claim to form the government in Goa with support of 3 MGP MLAs, 3 GFP MLAs, 2 Independents and the NCP MLA. Following this, Parrikar had resigned as the Defence Minister to return as Goa Chief Minister and lead the newly formed coalition government. However, when Parrikar passed away on March 17, 2019, a vacuum emerged in the state. While erstwhile Assembly Speaker Pramod Sawant replaced him, the rift within the ruling parties widened.

In the next few months, both Deputy CMs in the Parrikar Cabinet-MGP chief Sudin Dhavalikar and GFG president Vijai Sardesai were removed from the Cabinet. But, soon BJP consolidated its position after 10 Congress MLAs including Chandrakant Kavlekar, Atanasio Monserrate, Jeniffer Monserratte, Francis Silveria, Philip Nery Rodrigues, Cleadacio Dias, Wildred Dsa, NIlkant Halarnkar and Isidor Fernandes joined the saffron party on July 10, 2019. Earlier in April this year, Speaker Rajesh Patnekar had dismissed the disqualification petitions filed against the 10 Congress legislators. 

(Image: PTI)