Panaji, Oct 25 (PTI) The Goa Forward Party (GFP) is assessing the likely impact of allying with the Trinamool Congress for the next year"s assembly elections in the coastal state, GFP president Vijai Sardesai said on Monday. He also said talks of alliance with Congress remain suspended as of now. The Assembly elections in Goa are due in February next year. The TMC had announced to contest maiden polls in Goa. Sardesai told PTI that the GFP will never sacrifice its ideology of "Goem, Goemkar, Goemkarponn" (Goan, Goans, Goanness). "The GFP"s discussions with I-PAC, which is an agency working for the All India Trinamool Congress (AITC), have slowed down. The GFP never had any contact with the AITC but had met with strategist Prashant Kishor. We were thinking of some kind of a tie-up but right now, we are going slow while trying to gauge the sentiments of the people. Perception is what matters”, he said. Sardesai said the GFP is assessing the likely impact of allying with the AITC by engaging in broad discussions with party workers and sympathisers. The Congress had won the highest 17 seats in the 40-member House in the 2017 Goa Assembly elections, restricting the main opponent BJP to 13. But the saffron party moved to ally with regional parties and came to power under the leadership of Manohar Parrikar, now deceased. The GFP had won three seats and shared power with the BJP for initial two-and-a-half years before Pramod Sawant became the chief minister after Parrikar"s demise. PTI RPS NSK NSK NSK