In fresh blow to INDIA, AAP ups ante in Goa, names LS candidate from Congress stronghold

In a setback to the Opposition INDIA alliance in Goa, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Tuesday announced its candidate for the South Goa constituency – a sitting seat of the Congress – for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Stung by the development, the Goa Cogress called the AAP’s move “unilateral and premature”, saying that the seat-sharing talks between the two INDIA allies were continuing.

Addressing a press conference, the AAP’s Goa unit president Amit Palekar announced that the party’s Benaulim MLA Capt. Venzy Viegas will be the candidate for the South Goa seat “on behalf of the INDIA alliance”, blaming Congress for the “delay” in finalising seat-sharing.

Palekar said both the AAP and the Congress held various meetings on seat-sharing at the national level, but no formal meetings had taken place over the last one month. He sought to link the “delay” on the part of the Congress to Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra.

“The first meeting was held on January 8, followed by another meeting on January 12, but since then there has been no formal meeting. Time is of the essence…With less than two months to go for polls… delay can be harmful for campaigning and winning,” said Palekar.

“We can’t fight elections for the sake of just fighting. We want to fight to win and to defeat the BJP. So to that end and keeping in mind the ground realities, we have announced our candidate. We expect that he (Venzy) will be confirmed as the alliance candidate, as broader talks continue,” he said.

The state AAP chief also said they had been in touch with the state Congress leadership to discuss potential candidates, but “were given to understand that enough time was not being given to the local (Congress) leaders by their central leadership for decision