Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party

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Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party
Abbreviation	MGP or MAG
Leader	Sudin Dhavalikar
Chairman	Deepak Dhavalikar
Secretary	Pratap Fadte
Founder	Dayanand Bandodkar
Founded	1963
Headquarters	18th June Road, Panaji- 403001 Goa
Ideology	Populism Regionalism
Political position	Centre-right
ECI Status	State Party[1]
Alliance	NDA (2012-19), (2022-Present) AITC+ (2021–2022)
Seats in Goa Legislative Assembly	2 / 40
Number of states and union territories in government	1 / 31
Election symbol
Politics of India Political parties Elections

Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (abbr. 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 descendants, a group that made up a large section of the poorer residents in Goa during Portuguese rule in Goa and whose numbers increased after 1961 by mass immigration from Maharashtra at the invitation of MGP politicians. However, the MGP proposal to merge Goa with Maharashtra was met with stiff opposition from the native Goans. Indira Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, then offered two options:^[2]

1. To retain Goa's current status as a Union Territory
2. To merge Goa into the neighboring state of Maharashtra and the other erstwhile Portuguese enclaves of Daman and Diu into the neighbouring state of Gujarat

A law to conduct opinion poll to decide the issue of merger or otherwise of Goa, Daman and Diu with Maharashtra/Gujarat was passed by both the houses of the Indian Parliament, the Lok Sabha (on 1 December 1966), and the Rajya Sabha (on 7 December 1966) and the same received the assent of the President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan on 16 December 1966. An opinion poll was subsequently held on 16 January 1967 to decide the fate of the union territory which voted to retain its status as separate from Maharashtra by 34,021 votes.^[3]

The continued mass immigration of Marathi people from Maharashtra to Goa helped the MGP to hold on to power for much of the first two decades of post-Portuguese Goa, despite being affected by some defections, by defeating the other contenders for power — primarily the United Goans Party (not to be confused with the United Goans Democratic Party founded in the 1990s) and the Indian National Congress.

During the first 18 years after the end of Portuguese rule, the MGP led the state government. However, the MGP today is marginalized when compared to its former status. The Bharatiya Janata Party, particularly during its reign between 1999 and 2005, took over most of the Hindu voters and also a large chunk of the MGP workers. Deepak Dhavalikar is the current president of the party and Pratap Fadte is the general secretary.^[4]