Sandesh Prabhudesai
20 August 1999
With Goa being one of the few states the Nationalist Congress Party has
fielded its candidates, the ruling Congress party here appears to be in little trouble as
it fears that the traditional minority Christian vote bank may split.
Sharad Pawar, the NCP president, has rightly chosen Dr Wilfred de
Souza, former chief minister and a self-styled Christian leader, to float his outfit here
in the tourist state. De Souza, the sitting MLA, is also contesting the elections this
time from South Goa, where the Christian vote bank becomes the decisive factor.
Ramakant Angle, the BJP candidate from the South, frankly admits that
his victory would depend on the role de Souza would play in splitting the minority votes,
especially in the Christian-dominated Salcete taluka.
Though the BJP lost to the Congress last year only by 7800 votes in the
South, former Congress MP Francisco Sardinha could sail through only because of the huge
margin of over 27,000 votes he secured in Salcete taluka.
"Dr de Souza is planted by Pawar against his wishes to help the
BJP to win", alleges chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, indirectly supporting
Angle’s contention. While similar is the case in North Goa, where the NCP is
contesting, Faleiro feels educated Goan voters are shrewd enough to understand
Pawar’s pro-BJP game.
Reacting sharply, de Souza however claims that Pawar would ultimately
rule the country, not by aligning with the BJP but by splitting the Congress soon after
the polls. "We don’t want to have any kind of relation with communal
elements", he asserts, flaying Faleiro’s contention.
With the whole National Democratic Alliance not getting beyond 200
seats and the Congress scoring less than 100 this time, de Souza predicts that the split
would occur in both the Congress as well as the NDA, who would join the NCP to make Pawar
the prime minister.
He even claims that this would obviously result in collapse of the
Congress government in Goa. Though revolt within the Congress over non-expansion of the
six-member cabinet is still the issue, Faleiro has now dangled the carrot of
legislators’ performance during the polls to decide who should be inducted.
