Congress leader Pawan Khera on Monday criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) over its attacks on the Congress on the issue of political defections in Goa, accusing the party of being “twice as shameless” as the BJP. Khera was responding to recent remarks by Goa AAP president Valmiki Naik, who had questioned the Congress’s record on defections and argued that switching sides between the Congress and BJP had become a recurring feature of Goa politics. The exchange comes as political parties begin positioning themselves for the 2027 Goa Assembly elections.

Speaking at a press conference, Khera referred to the movement of AAP Rajya Sabha MPs to the BJP earlier this year. “The party that has seen six or seven MPs leave and go in the Rajya Sabha is lecturing us about defections,” he said. Khera added that he had previously considered the BJP to be “shameless” over defections but claimed AAP had proved to be “twice as shameless”. Seven AAP Rajya Sabha MPs, including six from Punjab, joined the BJP in April, a development that has since become part of the political exchanges between the two parties.

Naik had earlier accused the Congress and BJP of making defections a recurring feature of Goa’s political landscape. He said the two parties had “destroyed” Goa over the past decade and suggested that similar political realignments could continue ahead of the 2027 Assembly elections. AAP has also been highlighting Congress’s history of legislators switching parties as part of its criticism of the Opposition party. According to reports, 10 Congress MLAs joined the BJP in 2019, while another eight moved to the ruling party in 2022, significantly altering the composition of the Goa Assembly.

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The latest confrontation comes amid a reshaping of the Opposition space in Goa. AAP and the Goa Forward Party (GFP), led by Vijai Sardesai, announced their “Goa First” alliance in September to contest the 2027 Assembly elections. The alliance has been presented by its leaders as a platform separate from both the Congress and BJP. Sardesai has said the GFP remains open to political realignment with like-minded parties, while AAP has maintained that the alliance is open to parties other than the Congress and BJP.

Khera, however, welcomed the GFP’s call for Opposition unity and said Congress agreed that there should be a broader alliance in Goa. He said the party would listen to the people of the state on the issue. His remarks came after Sardesai indicated that the GFP was willing to work with like-minded political forces seeking to challenge the BJP. Congress had earlier attempted to build a wider Opposition front and held discussions with AAP and the Revolutionary Goans Party, although those efforts have not resulted in a single Opposition alliance.

The dispute highlights the competing alliance strategies taking shape ahead of the 2027 Goa polls. While Congress has argued for a broader Opposition arrangement, AAP and GFP have already formed the Goa First alliance, leaving the Opposition space divided. AAP has meanwhile accused the Congress of targeting its constituencies rather than concentrating on the BJP, while Congress has criticised the AAP-GFP arrangement. With defections and alliance-building already central to the political debate, the latest Khera-Naik exchange adds another layer to the contest over Opposition unity in Goa.

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