Unlike Punjab, a poll bound State, which is seeing a bitter contest between the BJP-SAD alliance and AAP, the Aam Aadmi Party according Union Minister for Roads, Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari would actually help in absolute demolition of the Congress in poll-bound Goa.
So much so, that Gadkari, who has been put in-charge of BJP’s poll affairs in the coastal State even wished the AAP well in its campaign, claiming the more the party campaigns, the more it was likely to eat into Congress votes here.
“AAP’s entry is good and useful for us. Out of ten votes, if they eat into two of our votes, they will grab 10 Congress votes. I wish them well because they will help us win, it will help us indirectly,” Gadkari told reporters after conducting a series of meetings with top office bearers and elected representatives from the BJP in Goa over the last two days.
Gadkari said that the AAP in Goa, could actually help the BJP in implementing Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a Congress mukt bharat and that even the Congress workers were working in the same direction.
“AAP will cut Congress down. It was Mahatma Gandhi’s dream, that Congress should leave politics and India should be Congress mukt.
The Congress appears to be saying, ‘Bapu we will fulfill your dream and we will start this dream from Goa’... Congress is working towards Bapu’s dream and AAP also appears to be pushing them in that direction in all vigour,” Gadkari claimed.
AAP is contesting the upcoming state legislative assembly elections in Goa as well as Punjab. While the party is tipped to perform well in Punjab, in Goa its performance so far has been lacklustre.
Gadkari also said that the BJP would continue its alliance with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) for the 2017 state assembly elections and that the seat tally of the BJP alone would increase from 21 to 25 in the forty member Goa legislative assembly.
“We had an alliance and we will continue it. (Sudin) Dhavalikar is one of my closest friend. Sometimes I believe Dhaavlikar is a BJP minister himself,” Gadkari said. The MGP is headed by the Dhavalikar brothers, Sudin and Deepak, both of whom are also cabinet ministers.
Gadkari also said that the split in the RSS camp in Goa and the threat by rebel RSS leader Subhash Velingkar to mentor a new political party would have no bearing on the BJP's vote bank, which he said was secure. Differenes with Velingkar, he said woul be ironed out amicably.
“RSS is never involved in divisive politics. And Sangh office bearers do not invove in politics. If they have to join politics, they have to leave the Sangh... Sometimes things happen which you like, sometimes you dont like. Sometimes there are differences with policies, but they are our own people. So we will speak to them and find a way out,” Gadkari said, adding that he had regard for Velingkar who he said had contributed a lot towards Goa.
“I am confident that we will find a resolution and that it will not affect the election,” Gadkari said.