Cultures of MGP, TMC do not match: Goa BJP on their pre-poll alliance
Panaji (PTI): Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has said cultures of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and the Trinamool Congress, which have forged a pre-poll alliance, do not match.
The MGP, Goa's oldest regional party, on Monday announced it would contest the forthcoming state Assembly elections in an alliance with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) as the combine pitched for good governance as its main poll plank to take on the ruling BJP.
Reacting to the political development, CM Sawant said the two parties have no match when it comes to their cultural identities.
Where is the MGP's culture and where is the TMC's West Bengal culture? We wonder how do they match, he told reporters on Monday evening after attending a meeting of the BJP's election management committee chaired by former Maharashtra CM Devendra Fadanavis.
Referring to Goa's first CM Dayanand Bandodkar, who had founded the MGP, Sawant said, Late Bhausaheb (Dayanand) Bandodkar will not have peace wherever he is."
State BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said I have seen cartoons on various WhatsApp groups. It is shown there that when a lion does not get anything to eat, it eats grass.
Notably, lion is the MGP's election symbol.
After the 2017 Assembly polls, the BJP, despite winning only 13 seats in the 40-member House compared to 17 bagged by the Congress, quickly stitched an alliance with the MGP and another regional outfit, Goa Forward Party (GFP), to form its government.
The MGP and the GFP later split with the saffron outfit.
The MGP, which had won three seats in the 2017 polls, is currently left with only one MLA after two of its legislators joined the ruling BJP.
Tanavade said when the MGP aligned with the BJP for the first time in 1994, it was a different party altogether.
If it is the same party, it would not have tied-up with a political outfit like the TMC, he said. Now, the MGP has been turned into a private limited company of Dhavalikar brothers, Tanavade claimed.
The MGP is headed by Deepak Dhavalikar and his brother Sudin Dhavalikar represents the party in the state Assembly.
Deepak Dhavalikar on Monday said details of the MGP's alliance with the TMC would be announced at a later stage and added the two parties will be sharing seats for polls to the 40-member Assembly.
He claimed there was a "wave" against the BJP in Goa and the two parties would seek to capitalise on it in the polls, likely in early 2022.
TMC Member of Parliament and Goa desk in-charge Mahua Moitra had said the details of the alliance would be made public before Mamata Banerjee's scheduled visit to the coastal state on December 13.
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Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouaméni half a million euros each for altercation
Barcelona (AP): Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice.
The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.
On social media, Valverde initially called it a “meaningless fight” with a teammate and said “everything has been blown out of proportion."
His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouaméni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.
In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club “their complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.”
Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed “opportune.”
Tchouaméni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion.
After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.
“What happened this week in training is unacceptable,” Tchouaméni wrote. "I say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.
“Above all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.”
Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.
Both players are set to play in the World Cup next month, with Tchouaméni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.
Chaotic end to a poor season
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The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid's midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club's decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go after just months on the job.
It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. Álvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a “minor” incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio Rüdiger got into a scuffle.
Álvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid's reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.
Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino Pérez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.
