The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Goa based Goa Forward Party on Sunday formally announced that they will be contesting the upcoming Goa assembly elections in an alliance, called ‘Goa First.’
“Our party contested its first election in 2013. We set up in 2012 and in our first election we won 28 seats out of 70. BJP had 32, they needed 36. Elections had to be held again and we won 67 seats,” Kejriwal said. “In 2022, we won two MLAs, the BJP needed one MLA.
“Up to now the people did not have an option apart from the Congress and the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party]. This is the first time the people have Goa First as an option, which is a non-BJP, non-Congress alliance, a formidable alliance,” Kejriwal added. Kejriwal for his part defended his claims that AAP MLAs will remain loyal and not defect, saying that the AAP’s Rajya Sabha MPs who shifted to the BJP did not betray their voters, but betrayed the party that sent them there. They only needed four seats. They imposed President’s rule for a year. They tried their best to take four of our MLAs. For a year they were unable to break our MLAs and unable to form a government. They were trying for the last four years to break away our MLAs without success. In Jammu and Kashmir, they tried their best to take our lone MLA, without success. In Gujarat one of our MLAs resigned and we defeated him in the by-election. None of our elected representatives have cheated the people anywhere. Our Rajya Sabha MPs who left and went, have cheated the party. It was the party that had chosen them to represent them at the Rajya Sabha. He added that going forward the party will “think a hundred times before deciding who will be sent to the Rajya Sabha. Kejriwal also denied that the newly formed front would split the opposition vote saying that the party would draw votes from both those who otherwise vote for the BJP and the Congress.
Former Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, who addressed a joint press conference with Goa Forward Party chief Vijai Sardesai, said the alliance was necessary since “the people of Goa have been deceived twice and are not in a mood to be deceived again. The AAP has not betrayed its voters to date,” Kejriwal said.
