Panaji: In a subtle nudge to Congress, NCP said that a pre-poll alliance for the Lok Sabha elections and three bypolls could help dislodge the BJP dispensation. Addressing the press, senior NCP leaders in the state said that the party remained a potent force and should not be taken for granted.“Nobody should underestimate the NCP. We are a strong party. Last time we asked for an alliance and we did not get it and now we are suffering the consequences,” lone NCP MLA in the state Churchill Alemao said. “In the future, in each constituency we will have block workers and mahila workers.”Though Sharad Pawar’s NCP will contest the Lok Sabha elections in Maharashtra in alliance with the Congress, the party has decided to go it alone in Gujarat. A similar situation in Goa, fear NCP leaders, will benefit the BJP.“We should have an alliance, but Congress has not spoken to us. There have been no discussions,” state unit president Jose Philip D’Souza said. “Suppose there is an alliance, we have people who can win the elections in certain constituencies. If our leaders tell us to go ahead with the alliance, then we can go ahead. We have not heard anything.”The NCP said that if Congress and NCP had gone in for a pre-poll alliance for the 2017 assembly elections, then the situation in Goa would be much different.Asked directly if NCP would field candidates for the byelections, D’Souza said that the party had not taken any decision.“We can field candidates everywhere, but they must win and not just break votes and spoil the party’s name,” he said.Interestingly, just days earlier, NCP state general secretary Sanjay Barde announced that he would contest the Mapusa byelections. However, D’Souza said that the party was in the dark about the move and that if Barde decided to go ahead, the party would take action against him.

Stay updated with all the Latest Goa headlines here. For more exclusive & live news updates from all around India, stay connected with NYOOOZ.