Sandesh Prabhudesai
22 April 2002
Exploiting their so called secular credentials,
the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party are now
also joining hands in Goa, to defeat the 'communal' Bharatiya
Janata Party in the forthcoming Assembly elections.
Incidentally, the Congress today comprises
of one ex-chief minister and few others who had split and
joined hands with the BJP to share power in November 1999.
In case of the NCP, its local president Dr Wilfred de Souza
himself had tried a similar experiment in July 1998, for
four months.
"I have been given a green signal by my
national president Sharad Pawar to forge an alliance with
the Congress for Goa polls", de Souza told journalists today
morning, after returning from his Mumbai visit.
He however dismissed rumours that he may
join the Congress, which he had left four years ago, to
form a coalition government with the BJP. "The communal
forces in the state have to be defeated at any cost", felt
the former chief minister.
On the lines of other states like Maharashtra
where the NCP is sharing power with the Congress, de Souza
admitted that he plans to take initiative in forging a pre-poll
alliance on the basis of a common agenda and also the post-poll
power-sharing arrangements.
Pradyut Guha, one of the Congress observers
camping here for the poll campaign, had last week publicly
appealed to all the non-BJP forces to come together to defeat
the communal forces of the Sangh Parivar.
According to BJP chief minister Manohar
Parrikar, the talks of the Congress-NCP alliance is a clear
admission of the fact that the BJP is much stronger in Goa
than any other party. He however flayed their attempts,
stating that the BJP will emerge victorious in spite of
such attempts.
Interestingly, the BJP had also climbed
the ladder of power in the tourist state 16 months ago by
engineering defections in the Congress. Though few of them
quit the saffron brigade to return home, the BJP has already
declared candidature to some of these erstwhile Congressmen.
Perhaps this is the reason Parrikar himself
claims that issues like Gujarat may not have much impact
on Goa polls. "It will be purely decided on the basis of
who the candidate is", he states, while voters are also
not sure who will remain in which party even after elections.
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