Sandesh Prabhudesai
23 March 2002
Almost all the political parties in
Goa are caught up in a quandary over giving tickets
to habitual and professional defectors while winnability
also becomes the ultimate criteria to win the forthcoming
Assembly elections.
The tourist state, known for its political
instability over a decade now, is once again going for
polls within 32 months. The ruling BJP here has dissolved
the Assembly, in order to save their party from splitting,
after they came to power 16 months ago by engineering
defections in the Congress. Fresh elections are likely
to be held by May end.
"Performance, efficiency and integrity
will be the prime criteria while selecting candidates
from among our 20 ex-MLAs", said Laxmikant Parsekar,
the state BJP president. While one minister has already
quit, the BJP is still left with 10 more politicians,
who had defected twice before joining the BJP. Eight
of them became ministers.
But Balasaheb Apte, the BJP's Rajya
Sabha MP and Goa in-charge, now insists that winnability
of a candidate should also be considered a major criteria
since elections are ultimately meant for winning. The
BJP has already declared candidature of two such defectors,
Shaikh Hassan, a Muslim and Babu Azagaonkar, a dalit.
"All cannot be judged in the same manner.
Some of these professionals can integrate with us and
stop their defection habits permanently", claims chief
minister Manohar Parrikar, in an attempt to justify
candidature of defectors.
Former union law minister Ramakant
Khalap, who is the IT minister today, is however struggling
hard to get the BJP ticket as the state president Parsekar
plans to replace him in the former's traditional Mandrem
constituency. As the MGP candidate, Khalap had defeated
Parsekar in last Assembly polls, but later defected
to the Congress and then the BJP.
The Congress, on the other hand, has
also come under immense pressure from the cadres here
to deny tickets to all the habitual defectors. After
splitting from the then ruling party and enjoying ministerial
positions in successive governments, at least eight
of them have come back home after the BJP rejected them.
"You will see lots of new faces this
time", announced Congress observer Ramesh Chennithala
at the Congress rally held in South Goa last week. As
the party is full with professional defectors who had
been later wholeheartedly embraced to win 1994 and '99
elections, it is beyond even the control of the high
command to reject these 'filthy rich' powerful politicians.
Since 1990 when the first split toppled
the then elected Congress government, Goa has witnessed
three Assembly, two President's Rule, two premature
House dissolutions, 13 chief ministers and 21 defections,
involving altogether 80 politicians in a 40-member House.
Most of them are Congressmen or those belonging to regional
parties.
Though small regional parties in last
two polls adopted a strategy of giving tickets to the
'rejects' of the Congress, they have decided not to
repeat the mistake since almost all these professionals
later split and joined the Congress, after getting elected,
deserting the regional outfits.
On the contrary, the regional parties
and the leftist parties have now formed a third front,
resolving to field fresh and committed people, no matter
they are defeated. The 'rejects' of the Congress and
the BJP will thus have no alternative than to contest
independent to get back to their 'business' field -
the Legislative Assembly.
