Despite incense efforts by Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan and Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde, local BJP and MGP leaders could not hammer out any seat sharing arrangement.

Though both the parties agreed to carve up the 40-Assembly seats among themselves, negotiators could not agree on a few prestigious seats resulting in breakdown of talks. Subsequently, both the BJP and the MGP have announced their candidates for all the seats.

Goa's other regional parties United Goan Democratic Party (UGDP) and the Goa Rajiv Congress (GRC) also could not agree on any alliance with each other orthe national parties. A large number of rebel Congressmen who were denied tickets are now contesting under the banner of UGDP,MGP and GRC.

Under the list of candidates of the Congress party finalized in Delhi over the weekend, four Congress legislators in the outgoing house were denied tickets. In addition, 15 new faces were given tickets to contest the Assembly elections. Incidentally, the party gave the go-by to its promises of denying tickets to persons who had defected from other parties.

Goa Pradesh Congress Committee president Luizinho Faleiro told press persons that the party was strictly guided by a candidate's ability to win. He also added that persons who were not popular among the masses were denied tickets.

However, his warning to punish reject contenders rebelling against the party went largely unheeded by several of them. Many of these persons including several party office bearers are now contesting under symbols of regional parties.