PARTY HOPPING
THERE have been several cases of party hopping in the last week. Michael Lobo has left the BJP and is expected to join the Congress. Pravin Zantye, the Mayem MLA of the BJP, has shifted to the MGP. Babush Monserrate may also shift to the Congress as the BJP has not confirmed his candidature for the Panaji assembly seat. Carlos Almedia, who represented the BJP in Vasco, is the third minority community MLA besides Alina Saldanha to switch party. Since September 27, 2021 ten MLAs have resigned, including Luizinho Faleiro, Jayesh Salgaokar, Ravi Naik, Churchill Alemao, Rohan Khaunte, Alina Saldinha, Reginaldo Laurenco, Carlos Almedia, Prasad Gaonkar, Michael Lobo and Pravin Zantye.
SENA OFFER TO UTPAL!
THE Shiv Sena, which has decided to participate in the Goa elections, has offered its ticket to Utpal Parrikar, the son of the late Manohar Parrikar. Utpal is adamant on contesting from Panaji. Though Babush has already started campaigning as the BJP candidate, officially the BJP High Command has not confirmed his ticket for Panaji.
AMIT SHAH CONSPIRACY?
FORMER Calangute MLA Agnelo Fernandes has claimed that there is a conspiracy between a section of Congress MLAs and Amit Shah, to engineer the defection of 2/3rd of the Congress MLAs into the BJP after the February 14 election to form a BJP government again, like they did in 2017.
TMC, CONG ALLIANCE
GOA in-charge of the Goa Trinamool Congress Mahua Moitra has declared that the TMC is open to an alliance with the Indian National Congress. Moitra believes that all opposition parties should come together to defeat the BJP. The Congress in-charge of Goa P Chidambaram is also in favour of an alliance of all opposition parties including the TMC and the MGP, with the exception of the Aam Aadmi party. AAP has already announced 16 candidates and has decided to fight the election alone.