PANAJI, JULY 26: Eduardo Faleiro, former Union external affairs minister was today elected to the Rajya Sabha on a Congress ticket, defeating Bhawani Shankar Gadnis, a Supreme Court lawyer by a 24-12 margin. Gadnis, a candidate of the Goa Rajiv Congress was supported by the ten-member Bharatiya Janata Party.The regional Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, two of whose MLAs, seconded Gadnis' nomination abstained from voting. All the four MLAs of the MGP led by former Union law minister Ramakant Khalap are in New Delhi negotiating an alliance with the Congress High Command.The 40-member Goa Assembly sends one member to the Rajya Sabha.Chief Minister Luizinho Faleiro today confirmed that a tie-up between the Congress and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party was in the offing. `We had invited all like-minded secular parties to ally with the Congress when we formed the government,' Faleiro told mediapersons. He however refused to confirm or deny whether Khalap's candidature for the north Goa Lok Sabha seatwould be supported by Congress. `It will be decided by the election committee of the Pradesh Congress committee,' he said.All the senior leaders of the Congress party are legislators in the Goa Assembly. These include outgoing MPs from Goa, Ravi Naik and Fransisco Sardinha. None of them are reported to be interested in contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls.The proposed alliance between the Congress party and the MGP will see the consolidation of all non-Bharatiya Janata Party legislators in the state. Earlier this month the two-member United Goans Democratic Party merged with the Congress. Goa Rajiv Congress, with two legislators is a splinter group of the Congress party.The BJP has ten members in the Goa Assembly.
