Panaji: BJP and MGP functionaries on Tuesday gave conflicting accounts of post-poll alliance talks ahead of the 2027 assembly election.Chief minister Pramod Sawant said preliminary discussions had begun and that the two parties would contest the 2027 election together. “We will forge the BJP-MGP alliance. We had a meeting with MGP president Pandurang ‘Deepak’ Dhavalikar and started the discussion. The final discussion will continue with central BJP members. We have discussed how we can fight the next assembly election united, and we are confident about the alliance. We have decided to go ahead with the alliance and win the 2027 assembly election,” Sawant said.Senior MGP functionary and power minister Ramkrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar said the talks had not yet started and would depend on decisions taken in the party’s working committee meeting and annual general body meeting (AGM). “After the AGM, we will start alliance talks, and I will travel to Delhi to meet Union home minister Amit Shah, BJP national president, and the Maharashtra chief minister to hold alliance talks. After talking to them, we will talk publicly about alliances. MGP president has said that we have been working in 13 constituencies and our work will continue in those constituencies,” Sudin said.“MGP is clear, and what BJP has in mind, we are unaware of. I will ask the karyakartas and then hold alliance talks,” he added.In the 2022 assembly election, MGP contested in an alliance with TMC and won two seats, including Sudin’s seat. After the election, MGP entered a post-poll alliance with BJP and joined the coalition govt.Sudin has started campaigning in Ponda, a constituency previously represented by BJP MLA Ravi Naik. The seat has been vacant for nearly a year following Naik’s death.
