Goa Rajiv Congress Party (GRCP), was a splinter group of

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

. It was founded in 1998 by

Wilfred de Souza Wilfred Anthony de Souza (23 April 1927 – 4 September 2015) was an Indian surgeon and politician who served as the first Deputy Chief Minister of Goa from January 1980 to September 1983, and held the position a total of four times. H ...

. It formed a coalition state government with

Bharatiya Janata Party The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major List of political parties in India, Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's ...

(BJP) and

Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party ( MGP) is a political party in India. It was Goa's first ruling party after the end of Portuguese rule in Goa in 1961. The party has its base amongst non-Brahmin Hindu migrants from Maharashtra and their desce ...

, with de Souza as Chief Minister. In the split from INC de Souza took with him several local branches of the Congress party and the entire Youth Congress and National Students Union of India (Congress student wing) branches in the state. Ahead of the Goa assembly elections 1999 GRCP launched 14 candidates, out of whom two were elected (

and Francis D'Souza). In total the party received 36 570 votes. Shortly after the elections GRCP merged with

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party is one of the List of political parties in India#State parties, state parties in India and is one of the major political parties in Maharashtra Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra with a recognised state party statu ...

. Francis de Souza left NCP to rejoin the INC 5 November same year. He later joined

BJP The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP; , ) is a political party in India and one of the two major Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. BJP emerged out from Syama Prasad Mukherjee's Bharatiya Jana Sangh. Since 2014, ...

References

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See also