Sandesh Prabhudesai
7 June 1999
Inspite of gaining absolute majority after 14 years, the Congress has
not gained much in Goa elections this time. The real gainer is the Bharatiya Janata Party,
which literally swept the polls and emerged as the main opposition party by winning 10
seats.
The simple statistics indicates that the Congress gained by only 2 per
cent compared to ’94 polls when it had polled 37 per cent but only 18 seats. On the
contrary, the BJP has risen from 9 per cent to 26 per cent this time while also increasing
its strength from four to 10 in the House.
Setting a new trend for the first time in Goa’s political history
since 1963, both the national parties have however literally wiped out the regional
outfits, including the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which had ruled the state initially
for 17 years.
While winning only four seats including the comeback of former union
minister Ramakant Khalap, the MGP was pushed by the Goan electorate to mere 15 per cent
from its strength of 22 per cent and 12 seats in the last polls.
Even their stalwarts like former chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar,
party chief Surendra Sirsat, general secretary Dharma Chodankar and former opposition
leader Kashinath Jalmi had to face miserable defeat, besides 11 seats they had gained last
time among the 12.
Similar is the position of the United Goans Democratic Party and the
Goa Rajiv Congress, whose pre-poll plan to tie up with the MGP to form a regional front
failed. Both these parties could not cross 6 per cent each while also winning only two
seats each, including GRC leader Dr Wilfred de Souza, traditionally a Congressman.
"Regional parties should wind up their shop now", feels
Pratapsing Rane, the former Congress chief minister and arch rival of de Souza. He had
joined the Congress in 1977 leaving the MGP, through which he had entered the political
arena.
Khalap however disagrees with him. Rather than winding up, he prefers
to look at the disastrous results of his party as an eye opener and introspect. "It
is our organisational failure", he admits as his party organisation had ceased to
function for last 15 years but was winning with its traditional vote bank.
The BJP, with the well-knit organisational set-up of the sangh parivar,
precisely exploited this situation to win over MGP’s Hindu vote bank while also
making inroads into Congress bastions. Among the eight new seats they have won, three also
belong to the Congress traditionally.
But the Congress leaders refuse to admit the fact. "It is
people’s verdict and we respect it", says Luizinho Faleiro, the Goa PCC chief.
But people’s response to the attempts of the Congress to condemn BJP’s communal
designs appear to have started slowly diminishing, threatening Goa’s secular base.
The backward trend of the Congress seems visible in the election
results. Its record of 41 per cent in ’89 polls (though they had won only 19 seats
with a hung Assembly) is still the lower despite achieving wafer-thin majority of 21. In
fact it lost its seven constituencies this time.
"Our chances were spoiled due to rebellion within", claims
Faleiro. But the GRC led by de Souza, the break-away Congress group, spoiled their
prospects only in three constituencies including two won by the GRC, besides one won by
Poinguinim Congress rebel Isidore Fernandes.
On the contrary, the Congress won almost seven seats by bravely facing
challenge of the GRC, including three of their former MLAs - Carmo Pegado, Fatima
D’Sa and Manu Fernandes. The Congress however lost its Siolim seat to the BJP due to
GRC candidate Chandrakant Chodankar, the former MLA.
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