The Goa Vikas Party (GVP) is a regional political party from

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 ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

, was led by

Francisco Pacheco Francisco Pérez del Río (bap. 3 November 1564 – 27 November 1644), known by his pseudonym Francisco Pacheco, was a Spanish painter, best known as the teacher of Alonso Cano and Diego Velázquez, as well as the latter's father-in-law. His ...

. The GVP was founded by late Sitaram Bandodkar, and the current president is Francisco Pacheco's partner Viola Pacheco. It was revived by Pacheco, who left the

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 ...

and joined the GVP ahead of the 2012 Goa Legislative Assembly election. It is a part of the

National Democratic Alliance The National Democratic Alliance (NDA; ISO 15919, ISO: ''Rāṣṭrīya Lokatāntrik Gaṭhabandhan'') is an Indian big tent Political group, multi-party political alliance, led by the country's biggest political party, the Bharatiya Janata Pa ...

(NDA) led by the

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). It is a part of the ruling coalition in Goa, the other members being the 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 ...

. The GVP has two members in the

Goa Legislative Assembly The Goa Legislative Assembly is the unicameral legislature of the state of Goa in India. The Assembly meets at the Goa State Legislative Assembly Complex in Porvorim, Bardez. The Eighth Goa Legislative Assembly consists of 40 members. The assem ...

: Pacheco from Nuvem but he resigned and Caetano Silva from Benaulim. Three daughters of Party founder Sitaram Bandodkar lodged a complaint in the

Election Commission of India The Election Commission of India (ECI) is a constitutional body established by Constitution of India, the Constitution of the Republic of India empowered to conduct free and fair elections in the Republic of India. It is headed by a Chief Ele ...

during the takeover of the party by Pacheco, alleging that they were not consulted during the revivification. The GVP contested on nine seats and got 3.5 percent of the total votes in the 2012 Goa elections. In November 2014, Pacheco was inducted as a minister in the state cabinet; the step was seen as a "thank you" to the GVP for its support to the BJP in the

2014 Indian general election General elections were held in India in nine phases from 7 April to 12 May 2014 to elect the members of the 16th Lok Sabha. With 834 million registered voters, they were the largest-ever elections in the world until being surpassed by the 2019 ...

. However, Pacheco resigned from the post in April 2015 after getting convicted by the

Supreme Court of India The Supreme Court of India is the supreme judiciary of India, judicial authority and the supreme court, highest court of the Republic of India. It is the final Appellate court, court of appeal for all civil and criminal cases in India. It also ...

for assaulting a government official. Caetano Silva raised his claim for the vacant ministerial berth, and later termed the GVP as a "one-man political organisation", saying that he feels like an "independent member of the GVP".

References

Political parties with year of establishment missing Registered unrecognised political parties in India {{India-party-stub