From Jal Khambata NEW DELHI: With the Goa assembly poll set for June 4, both Congress and Bhartiya Janata Party had quick review of their respective prospects on Wednesday and set in motion process for selection of candidates. Goa will become the first state in the country to have the entire election process of balloting and counting done exclusively using the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) which have been used hitherto only in selective constituencies. Confident of capturing the Assembly for the first time, the BJP plans to go alone as discussed at a meeting chaired by L K Advani Wednesday evening. Yet it opted to keep the suspense about the possible "seat adjustment" with the regional Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP) till May 14 when its national election committee meets in Delhi and finalises the candidates. The nominations that begin with the notification on Monday will go on till May 17 and Goa being a small state there would be no problems even if we finalise the candidates on 14th night, BJP spokesman M Venkaiah Naidu said. Goa PCC chief Louzinho Faleiro, a former chief minister, happened to be in Delhi for the meeting of all PCC chiefs convened to discuss the Lok Sabha election preparations when the formal announcement of the election schedule came. Congress President Sonia Gandhi was meeting the PCC chiefs and CLP leaders one by one and so she could hold a detailed discussion with Faleiro and get a report from him. Faleiro also had interaction with AICC general secretaries Oscar Fernandes and Madhavrao Scindia. Party spokesman Ajit Jogi said the State Election Committee headed by former Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane has almost completed the task of shortlisting the candidates and it has to just rush the list for getting the AICC's approval. Notwithstanding the BJP keeping doors open for electoral understanding, MGP leader Dharma Chodankar, who was here for the all-party meeting convened by the Election Commission, was quite emphatic that the MGP has already decided to join hands with Goa Rajiv Congress and United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP> as a joint front of the regional parties in which the BJP cannot fit in. All the same BJP General Secretary (incharge Goa) Sangh Priya Gautam, a Rajya Sabha member from U.P., is rushing to Goa to confer with the state leaders and then give a detailed report to the party leadership to enable it to take the final decision. At the BJP Press briefing, Venkaiah Naidu said: "We are confident of capturing the Goa Assembly as we very narrowly lost in the last Lok Sabha poll and since then there has been total disintegration of the Congress and the BJP has emerged as the hot favourite of the Goans. We could judge it from the public response we saw during our national executive meeting there last month." He said the campaign strategy for Goa was discussed at Wednesday's meeting of the Campaign Committee and the party plans to send "important people" to Goa for election campaign. With Wednedsay's announcement of the Goa polls, the Election Commission press note said the Model Code of Conduct for political parties and candidates comes into immediate effect. As per the time-table drawn up by the Election Commission, the counting of votes is on June 6 and the results should be available the same afternoon because of the voting done using the electronic voting machines. Here is the detailed schedule: Sl.No Event in Election Process Date 1 Issue of Notification 10-5-99 (Monday) 2 Last date for filing Nominations 17-5-99 (Monday) 3 Scrutiny of nominations 18-5-99 (Tuesday) 4 Withdrawal of candidatures 20-5-99 (Thursday) 5 Date of poll 4-6-99 (Friday) 6 Counting of Votes on 6-6-99 (Sunday) 7 Date before which the election shall be completed 10-6-99 (Friday) ALLIANCE WITH mgp?: Meanwhile former Maharashtra Chief Minister and CWC member Sharad Pawar is understood to have given a proposal to the party high command to go for a "seat adjustment" with Mahrashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP) in the Goa Assembly elections. Pawar is chairman of the AICC committee constituted only two days ago to explore electoral alliances in the coming mid-term poll of the Lok Sabha In a special assessment report, he has pointed out that this alone can checkmate the Bhartiya Janata Party from capturing the Assembly. The Congress had been just able to scrap through in the Lok Sabha elections last year when the BJP came very close second, pushing MGP to the third position and hence the growing influence of the BJP should be kept in mind, his report said. Goa PCC President Louzinho Faleiro is believed to have been told about Pawar's proposal when he went round meeting AICC general secretaries Madhavrao Scindia, Pranab Mukherjee, Oscar Fernandes and AICC Media Department chairman Shivraj Patil. The issue, however, did not figure when he had a separate meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the evening. Faleiro is reported to have been told that Pawar as well as Goa observer Govindrao Adik has also discussed the proposal with former Union Minister and MGP leader Ramakant Khalap. Asked about the development, Faleiro played ignorance and pleaded not to create controversies. The PCC President, who is accompanied by former Speaker Sheikh Hasan Farooq, is reported to have also brought with him the shortlisted names of the ticket aspirants. Surprisingly, the list does not carry the names of Ravi Naik and Francisco Sardinha, both of whom had told Congress President Sonia Gandhi after the Lok Saha dissolution that they would better like to shift to the Assembly. There are two to four names for almost each of the constituencies and the list also has details of the castes and communities in each constituency. While PCC senior Vice-President Churchil Alemao wants to again contest the Lok Sabha elections, he figures in the list of four aspirants for the Benaulim constituency. Former Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane's name figures for the Poriem constituency with the only other name there being former Police officer Santoba Desai. Interestingly, the list of speakers submitted by Louzinho Faleiro to the AICC for campaigning in Goa does not include the name of Scindia, who is the incharge AICC general secretary for Goa. Faleiro wants at least eight leaders to campaign in Goa. Topping the list is Sharad Pawar whom he wants to extensively canvass throughout the state. Other speakers he has sought include AICC General Secretary Sushil Kumar Shinde, AICC Task Force chief Purno A Sangma, former Karnataka Chief Minister Bangarappa, former Karnataka Minister R V Deshpande, who defected from Hegde's camp only last week, former Union Minister Margaret Alva and Rajasthan PCC Chief Girija Vyas. END. --------------