Sandesh Prabhudesai
15 Feb 1999
Despite efforts to unite non-Congress forces in Goa, multi-corner fight
appears inevitable in the tourist state in the coming elections, which are expected early
after President’s rule is being imposed here this month.
Without waiting for the election commission to decide dates of fresh
polls, either before or after the monsoons, election fever has already started gripping
almost all the political parties in the state.
The Congress, which ruled most of the times in last four years despite
witnessing three chief ministers, claims to win 30 seats out of total 40, though in
reality its popularity has gone down tremendously.
"This time, we will not entertain any tainted leader", claims
Goa PCC chief Shantaram Naik, while his own position is actually being threatened by
former COFEPOSA detenue and alleged smuggler Churchill Alemao, presently the senior vice
president of the local Congress unit.
Former chief minister Luizinho Faleiro has assured to start with a
clean slate "at any cost", while he is trying to seize the position of the state
PCC chief at any cost. Knowing the deteriorated image of the party, he even participated
in the Carnival parade along with his ex-legislator supporters.
Despite series of defections and counter-defections, the Congress is
still at 18, the number with which they had entered the House in ’94 polls. Though
seven of its members revolted under the leadership of former chief minister Dr Wilfred de
Souza, they matched up engineering defections in the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and
Alemao’s United Goans Democratic Party.
The UGDP however is still a force among the Catholics in South Goa and
de Souza’s Goa Rajiv Congress, a force in the North, is planning to join hands with
them to float a new regional front. Using his good relations with former union law
minister Ramakant Khalap, de Souza has also succeeded to rope in the MGP, to make it a
‘real’ anti-Congress front.
"Not they, we are the real anti-Congress force in the state",
claims BJP leader Manohar Parrikar, who has decided not to continue its alliance with the
MGP or any other party this time. Pointing out at their ‘soft-corner behaviour’
towards the Congress, he claims a comfortable victory by rallying behind all the
anti-Congress votes.
Though the BJP could make a debut with only four MLAs last time mainly
because of its alliance with the MGP, it has spread its tentacles very systematically with
the help of Vajpayee wave created in the literate state in recently held Lok Sabha
elections.
But the BJP’s clean image is also getting damaged as Pandurang
Raut, who had shocked even the political analysts by polling over 35 per cent votes in a
triangular fight in the Lok Sabha polls, has quit the party to join back the Congress
camp.
Dr Willy’s regional front-in-the-offing has also begun a scathing
attack on the BJP, reminding the people about they foiling the attempts to form a
non-Congress government in ’94 as well as to withdraw its support once again to de
Souza, creating a situation for the President’s rule.
Despite its eroded image, the Congress may ultimately emerge victorious
if the anti-Congress votes divide among de Souza’s regional front and the BJP. The
hung Assembly would also be then inevitable, encouraging continuance of the game of
defections to form the government.
