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

Indian National Congress The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British E ...

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 located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

. It was founded in 1998 by

Wilfred de Souza Wilfred de Souza (23 April 1927 – 4 September 2015) was a surgeon and politician from Goa, India. He served as Goa's first Deputy Chief Minister of Goa and chief minister on three occasions when he was a member of the Indian National ...

. 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 Indian political parties alongside the Indian National Congress. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mod ...

(BJP) and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, 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 Francis D'Souza is a Canadian television executive and a former broadcaster. He is the Managing Editor of News Programming at CBC, nationally, and a former television news anchor for Citytv in Toronto, Ontario. Biography D'Souza became interest ...

). In total the party received 36 570 votes. Shortly after the elections GRCP merged with

Nationalist Congress Party The Nationalist Congress Party ( NCP) is one of the nine national parties in India. The party generally supports Indian nationalism and Gandhian secularism. It is the largest opposition party in Maharashtra and is also a significant party ...

. Francis de Souza left NCP to rejoin the INC November 5 same year.{{Cite news, url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Willy-says-Tulio-can-contest-from-any-other-party/articleshow/11493346.cms, title = Assembly elections 2012 | Goa News - Times of India, website=

The Times of India ''The Times of India'', also known by its abbreviation ''TOI'', is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by The Times Group. It is the third-largest newspaper in India by circulation and largest ...

, date=15 January 2012 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. Since 2014, it has been the ruling political party in India under Narendra Mo ...

References

See also