Goa CM Sawant predicts INDIA bloc dissolution post-election results

Goa Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said the oppositions INDIA bloc will vanish once the results of the Lok Sabha elections are announced on June 4.He also said that some regional parties in Goa, who are constituents of the INDIA bloc, may even get merged with the Congress after the results.

Goa Chief Minister and senior BJP leader Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said the opposition's INDIA bloc will vanish once the results of the Lok Sabha elections are announced on June 4.

He also said that some regional parties in Goa, who are constituents of the INDIA bloc, may even get merged with the Congress after the results. Talking to reporters, CM Sawant predicted that the Bharatiya Janata Party's North Goa candidate Shripad Naik will win the election by a margin of more than one lakh votes, while its South Goa nominee Pallavi Dempo will bag the seat by a margin of 50,000 to 60,000 votes.

Naik and BJP's Goa unit president Sadanand Shet Tanavade were also present on the occasion. Sawant said the Congress has already conceded defeat and its leaders are admitting in private that they will be restricted to only four assembly constituencies (out of the total 40) in the state. ''The INDIA alliance will vanish once the Lok Sabha election results are announced. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) will not be able to contest the next election as its leader and chief minister is in jail,'' he said, referring to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who has been in jail following his arrest in the Delhi liquor policy case. ''Some of the INDIA bloc partners in Goa who were more aggressive than the Congress may merge their party with the latter,'' he added. According to the Goa CM, the BJP has fought this election on the issue of development, while the Congress was trying to rake up the issues of religion and caste during its campaign in the state. ''The Congress has nothing to project, hence they had to take support of the issues of caste and religion. They should have told people what they had done when they had a double-engine government,'' he said, referring to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) dispensation that was in power between 2004 and 2014.

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