Sandesh Prabhudesai
17 August 2000
The nine-month old ruling coalition consisting of chief minister Francisco Sardinha's Goa People's Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party appears to have reached a consensus to keep the coalition going by not admitting anyone from the Congress splinter group into the cabinet.
Shaikh Hassan, leader of the five-member Congress (SH) which split on 15 August, had said that they would not reject the offer of getting inducted into the cabinet though it was described as 'unconditional support' to the ruling coalition. The BJP had however strongly opposed it.
"It is not a defection, but an affection they have shown to our government", states Sardinha, adding that the members of the splinter group would be rewarded with more work in their constituencies and not any cabinet berth.
"The more you add, more you are in trouble", quips BJP leader Manohar Parrikar. He appears to have convinced Sardinha about his theory that the number belonging to the ruling parties should not go beyond 21 in the 40-member House, for the smooth functioning in the most unstable defection-prone state of the country.
Besides 11 of Sardinha's GPC and 10 of the BJP who are part of the ruling coalition, Sardinha's support base has now gone up to 30 with five from the Congress (SH) adding to the outside support he already enjoys from two MGP, one NCP and independent.
The claim made by the splinter group initially that at least two among them would be accommodated by dropping two of the existing ministers has also been put to rest. Softening its demand to drop revenue minister Mauvin Godinho, Parrikar now feels that the best strategy would be not to create any vacancy in the cabinet.
No doubt Sardinha has overscored a point over the BJP by getting five more Congress colleagues in his camp, but this may not tempt him to immediately start bargaining with the 'real' Congress for a homecoming by dropping Goa PCC chief Luizinho Faleiro, his arch political rival, to take over reins as the Congress chief minister.
"The offer was made to me six months ago and I still decline to accept it", clarifies Sardinha, ruling out any such possibility in near future. Even Parrikar does not agree with the theory that the split would ultimately lead to polarisation of the Congress.
On the other hand, there is an uneasy calm prevailing in the Congress camp with none of their leaders prepared to even admit that the party has split. The Sardinha camp however claims that at least four members out of the remaining nine (excluding the speaker) also want to cross over.
Confirming the news that some of these Congressmen had come with a proposal to form a BJP-led coalition by sidelining the Sardinha camp, Parrikar states that the proposal has been outrightly rejected. "The existing coalition will together face the next polls", he says, while the existing Assembly has just completed 14 months.
The only possibility he perceives is demanding early polls, may be after two more years, by going for premature dissolution of the House. But whether the disgruntled elements in the splinter group would allow that to make happen is still a question.
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