‘BJP likely to face resentment once candidate is chosen’PANAJI: MGP , which secured the second position in the 2017 assembly elections in Mapusa, may contest the byelection in the constituency. After the 2017 assembly elections, Congress had emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats. Dhavalikar will contest from Shiroda and the party said it is in touch with Jeet Arolkar whom they are interested in fielding in Mandrem. The Mapusa assembly seat fell vacant with the death of sitting BJP MLA Francis D’Souza on Thursday.MGP president Pandurang Dhavalikar said, “The central committee will take a decision on contesting the byelection in Mapusa.”During the 2017 assembly election, D’Souza had secured 10,957 votes, MGP’s Vinod Phadke 4,129 and Congress’ Vijay Bhike 3,013.D’Souza had won the Mapusa assembly seat since 1999 and every time with a higher margin, except in the 2017 elections.Political observers said that if BJP allows MGP to contest the byelection then it would be difficult for it to get a comfortable victory.An observer said there was no resentment in BJP’s Mapusa mandal and there was also no aspiring candidate for a ticket till Thursday, but now the situation is different and there could be resentment in the party once a candidate is decided.Dhavalikar said MGP has decided to contest byelections in Mandrem and Shiroda. Both the candidates have already started campaigning.BJP had one round of talks to convince MGP not to contest the assembly byelections, but the meeting remained inconclusive.With MGP deciding to contest the bypolls in the two seats, GFP president and TCP minister Vijai Sardesai said a plan B has been prepared for the government’s survival.An observer said that if MGP manages to win seats in the bypolls then its position would get stronger in the coalition and they could move out of the government and join hands with the opposition to form an alternate government.Another political observer said that keeping this in mind, GFP must have prepared plan B so that the present coalition does not fall.After D’Souza’s death, the state assembly’s strength has been reduced to 37 in the 40-member House and Congress has, once again, become the single largest party in the assembly with 14 seats.Following the resignations of former Congress MLAs from Shiroda and Mandrem, BJP and Congress had equal number of seat in the assembly.
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