PANAJI: With speculation intensifying over whether the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its estranged ally the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) will enter into an official alliance to face the 2022 assembly polls, the Dhavlikar brothers on Sunday cited past 'Big Brother' betrayals by the saffron party to argue against it.
Former deputy chief minister Sudin Dhavlikar, whose writ runs large in the MGP, said that the BJP had betrayed the MGP thrice in the past but he did not outrightly rule out a deal.
"We will have to think of alliance with extreme caution or else it will be political suicide of MGP," Dhavlikar said, adding that his party's executive committee will weigh the implications of a tie-up and accordingly decide.
He said, the treatment meted out to the MGP by the ruling party in the past since 1999 is intolerable and added that as of today, the party has decided to field young professionals in 12 constituencies and the interests of these candidates are important for the MGP.
At loggerheads with the ruling BJP since he was unceremoniously dropped from the cabinet seven days after he was elevated as Deputy Chief Minister in the aftermath of the death of Manohar Parrikar in 2019 when Chief Minister Pramod Sawant took charge, Dhavlikar rekindled the possibility of an alliance when reports emerged that he had a meeting with the saffron party's Goa election in-charge and ex-Chief Minister of Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis in Mumbai.
On the record though, Dhavlikar has denied the meeting or any talks with the BJP.
Currently, the MGP is a serious contender in at least five assembly segments -- Mandrem, Pernem, Bicholim, Dhavlikar's own Marcaim and Priol where his younger brother who is the party president has already begun campaigning.
A few months ago, Dhavlikar had also announced alliance talks with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) after a tete-a-tete with the latter's chief and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
The Dhavlikars had also subsequently travelled to Delhi and held another round of talks there but there is no official word from either parties on the progress of those talks since then.
Meanwhile, in a separate interview to a media outlet, the younger Dhavlikar who officially heads the MGP asserted there the party is not in talks and ruled out alliance with the ruling party.
Dipak Dhavlikar also said in the interview that the MGP is open to striking alliances with the Congress and other parties in the fray.
