20 former and current MLAs keen to join MGP: Dhavalikar

Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Sudhir Dhavalikar today claimed that around 20 current and former Goa legislators are keen to join the party and have approached them.
"There are at least 20 current and former legislators who have approached us. They want to leave their current political affiliation and be with MGP," he told reporters here.
Dhavilkar, the Goa Transport Minister, said MGP has kept its door open for anyone who wants to work for the state.
Assembly polls in Goa are slated for next year.
To a question, Dhavalikar claimed that Congress legislator Pandurang Madkaikar and Independent MLA Naresh Sawal are in-talks with the party to switch over the sides ahead of the state Assembly elections.

"Madkaikar was in MGP earlier and had left the party to join Congress. We are ready accept him. Similarly, Sawal has ideology similar to us," he said.

Dhavalikar said MGP is the only political party in the coastal state which had an representative in the Assembly since 1963 (when first Assembly was formed post-liberation from Portuguese rule).
"All other parties arrived on Goa's political scene after 1980. That is why people identify themselves with MGP. People have seen how MGP governs. Goans want MGP," he said.
In the 2012 Assembly polls, MGP, which had an alliance with the BJP, had bagged three seats.