Goa Assembly polls: TMC says it will win 12 seats, ally MGP 7

Trinamool Congress has claimed it will win 12 seats in Goa and its ally Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) will bag seven seats in the 40-member state Assembly.

Panaji: The Trinamool Congress has claimed it will win 12 seats in Goa and its ally Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) will bag seven seats in the 40-member state Assembly. Polling in all the 40 Assembly constituencies of the coastal state was held on Monday. The counting of votes will be held on March 10.

Before the polls, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) had forged an alliance with Goa's oldest regional party MGP. Talking to media after the voting concluded on Monday evening, TMC Goa chief Kiran Kandolkar claimed his party was the only political outfit that gave a tough fight to the ruling BJP in the state.

"The TMC will win at least 12 seats in the state. Our ally MGP will win seven seats," he claimed.
Kandolkar said they might fall short of a few seats, as against the majority mark of 21, but expressed confidence that they will be able to prove the majority on the floor of the House.

He dismissed the apprehension that the MGP might part ways with the TMC after the poll results are out.
The pre-poll alliance between two the parties mandates that the MGP stays with the TMC even after the results are declared, he said.

Kandolkar further said a wrong impression was being created that the TMC will leave Goa after the poll results, and asserted that his party was here to stay. I agree that we have no grass-root level workers in Goa at present, but during the campaigning for the elections, we managed to make our presence felt in all the 40 Assembly constituencies, he said. The party organisation will now set up grass-root level committees across Goa, he added.

(PTI)