Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supremo Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced that his party was joining hands with the Vijai Sardesai-led Goa Forward Party (GFP) to take on the Congress and the BJP in the 2027 polls.
Calling the new alliance "neither the Congress nor the BJP", Kejriwal indicated that 'Goa First' would be a "real alternative" for those who wanted to defeat the BJP and were disappointed with the Congress.
He claimed that people in Goa had been left with only two options to vote for—either the BJP or the Congress—and also alleged that an understanding existed between the two parties in the coastal state.
The AAP leader added that the alliance would win on its own, adding that his party and the GFP were equal partners. However, he also did not rule out bringing "like-minded political forces" into the alliance.
"Many people have approached us, including leaders from both the parties who are tired of their politics," he pointed out at the press conference, surrounded by Sardesai, the party's Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Delhi and AAP’s Goa desk in-charge, Atishi, and others.
Though this new front was teased in many hoardings placed along Goa's highways on Saturday, the Congress reiterated that alliance talks with the GFP were underway, in a bid to present a united front against the incumbent BJP government led by CM Pramod Sawant.
Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar, however, reiterated that the GFP was still an ally, and that discussions on a pre-poll alliance for the 2027 elections were continuing with the party high command.
“I have confirmed with my high command even today morning. They have said that the talks for alliance are still on,” Chodankar told reporters on Saturday.
The roadmap to 'Goa First'
This comes a decade after the AAP's first foray into the state in 2017, when it failed to open its account in the Assembly polls that year on contesting solo, with most of its candidates losing their security deposits as well.
Five years later, the 2022 Assembly polls saw the party register its first victories in the state, with Captain Venzy Viegas defeating the Trinamool Congress' (TMC) Churchill Alemao for the Benaulim seat, while Cruz Silva defeated Congress candidate Savio D'Silva for Velim.
As for the GFP, former Deputy CM Sardesai remains the party's lone MLA after winning the Fatorda seat in the Assembly alongside the Congress in 2022.
Though talks had been underway to restart this alliance for 2027, Sardesai's GFP later stalled these discussions, citing a lack of response from the national party.
