Shakespeare wrote the phrase, "Misery acquaints a man with strange bedfellows," in his 1611 play The Tempest.
Over the 1800s, writers adapted Shakespeare's phrasing to fit different scenarios, comparing party politics and poverty to how people find themselves in unusual company.
Charles Dudley Warner popularised the modern wording in 1870 when he wrote, “so true it is that politics makes strange bedfellows.”
Goa Forward and the Aam Aadmi Party have taken it to an altogether different level in 2026.
An undesirable alliance:
For starters, the alliance between the two parties is unnatural and undesirable. It is unnatural because a party founded on the basic principle of Goem, Goemkar and Goemkarponn cannot partner with a party that has a quintessential ‘Delhi’ image. Moreover, our discourse is filled with how the Delhi land sharks are taking over our beautiful state - piece by piece; how the high command culture dictates the fortunes and misfortunes of our beloved Goa, much to the chagrin of our local population.
It is undesirable because the general population has not welcomed it. A senior journalist friend from Delhi mentioned a very pertinent point to me a couple of days ago. He said, “The only reason the BJP came down to 240 in the Lok Sabha election is because of the united opposition.” He is right, and although one need not be a rocket scientist to arrive at this conclusion, the wisdom eludes our main opposition parties. People want it; the opposition doesn’t. It is a strange situation, one where the political parties are determined to do what people don’t want.
There can only be two simple explanations for this behaviour. One - our opposition parties are utterly stupid (Congress has proved this time and again), or two - there are bigger forces at play.
Congress refuses to learn:
Vijai Sardesai wanted to merge his party into the Congress- a merger, not just an alliance. Congress decided not to decide on the proposal; that happens with most promising proposals in the Congress. Then he proposed an early alliance. Congress decided to keep it hanging. Goa Forward is the only pre-poll ally of the Congress party in Goa. However, it chose not to invite Vijai Sardesai for even a courtesy meeting with K C Venugopal or Mallikarjun Kharge when they visited Goa. So, before Goa Forward decided to move away from the Congress party, the senior partner consistently snubbed the junior partner. Rather, it began hectic parleys with the Revolutionary Goans Party about the alliance. RGP has a track record of criticising the Congress leadership in the most embarrassing ways. Goa Forward had consciously stayed away from such utterances. However, the Congress found it more convenient to discuss alliance arithmetic with the RGP than with Goa Forward.
Amit Patkar & tricky equations:
Amit Patkar has no intention of putting up with the Congress party anymore. His actions speak much louder than his words nowadays. He is cosying up to Goa Forward and AAP. A show of strength with Congress ZP members on the occasion of Ganesh Panchami signalled what's about to come. The question is: can AAP afford to hobnob with the same person whom Arvind Kejriwal called an ‘agent of the CM’ a few months ago?
Congress is currently busy driving the narrative that the ‘Goa First’ alliance is a brainchild of the BJP to divide the opposition space. Congress unofficially insists the unceremonious removal of Patkar from the GPCC president post was due to his alleged proximity to Dr Pramod Sawant.
How will AAP justify its stance on Patkar, from ‘the agent of the ruling’ to ‘the harbinger of hope for the opposition’ within a few months?
Is the RGP alliance material?
This depleted and divided RGP is a pale shadow of what it was six months ago. Probably, Congress is confident about alliance prospects precisely for this reason. RGP without Manoj Parab, Ajay Kholkar & Vishwesh Naik is a party without ‘uzzo’ in its belly. Manoj Parab and Viresh Borkar were like fire and ice. And any election strategy requires both. The only solace Girish Chodankar and Viresh Borkar can draw is that people are blessing their coming together. But the devil lies in the details, and neither Congress nor RGP leadership has the bandwidth to conclude seat-sharing discussions in time.
St Cruz constituency is a classic example of this confusion. RGP has put a claim to the constituency. Congress believes it won St Cruz during the last assembly election, so it has a natural claim over the constituency. RGP says it has demonstrated its strength in the constituency during the recently concluded ZP elections. Congress is grooming Adv. Amit Palekar as their candidate in St. Cruz. RGP feels they have better options. The one-month deadline RGP gave Congress will be over by the month-end.
Arithmetic and Chemistry:
Alliances are usually a product of both arithmetic and chemistry. At least, it used to be. BJP - Shiv Sena, Congress - NCP, BJP - MGP, Congress - GFP, etc. We have now entered an era where arithmetic trumps all other equations because the BJP, on the other hand, has trampled upon all the nuances of acceptable and unacceptable. That’s what happened in 2024. The arithmetic pulled the BJP down. There was no chemistry. So it fizzled out soon after. In Goa, people have realised this brutal fact. That’s the reason they want all the opposition parties to come together. Janata understands that these formations will be unnatural but acceptable. Any other smaller formations will be unnatural and undesirable.
