BJP in ‘Political ICU’ in Goa
By Ashok Dixit
New Delhi, Nov 20, 2018: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Goa, India’s smallest state, appears to be in “political intensive care”, given the rumblings and grumblings surfacing in the public domain from its rank and file.
Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s secretive yet ongoing illness-cum-hospitalisation, both at home and abroad, and his desire to run affairs of state from his hospital bed, has apparently not sit well with the state BJP brass, though no one is saying so directly.
Last Sunday (November 4), we saw former state government minister Mahadev Naik strongly opposing the induction of two rebel Congress leaders, including former Shiroda constituency MLA Subhash Shirodkar Naik, and Dayanand Sopte of Mandrem constituency, into the party.
Naik’s statement then that the “BJP doesn’t trust us. The BJP did not ask a single karyakarta (worker/activist) from Shiroda before taking the decision…” is indicative of a very high level of discontent and discordance prevailing within the ruling party in the state, as also disappointment with the central leadership of the party over recent decisions taken.
I have just returned from a week-long visit to Karnataka and Goa and can vouch with certainty that the BJP in Goa under the leadership of an ailing Parrikar and by extension Vinay Tendulkar (president of the party in the state) have their backs to the wall, and are under enormous pressure to answer some very uncomfortable questions, both from party rank and file and the opposition Congress Party.
In fact, the Congress is on record as saying that Parrikar is being “used by the BJP to garner ‘cow and milk’ votes for the 2019 general elections.”
State Congress spokesman Jitendra Deshprabhu said the BJP’s central leadership is blatantly seeking sympathy votes in Parrikar’s name and is guilty of indulging in and promoting unconstitutional official acts.
The past three weeks has seen a major political churning going on in India’s smallest state, leading the Deputy Speaker of the Goa State Assembly and Calangute MLA, Michael Lobo, to say in utter anguish that “There is complete unrest in Goan society, especially among politicians, about the state of affairs in the Goa government…”
He has predicted that the state assembly is in clear danger of being dissolved before completing its term and warned that “politicians are taking the people for granted”, and must refrain or face major change sooner than later.
He has further cautioned that the anti-defection law could kick in as members of various parties are crossing over in a most undemocratic and unprincipled manner.
Mahadev Naik has raised the pitch of discontent within the BJP by squarely blaming Tendulkar and other leaders for the fall in the number of BJP seats in the state assembly to 13 post the 2017 elections.
Many say that Town and Country Planning (TCP) Minister and leader of the Goa Forward Party (GFP), a coalition partner, Vijai Sardesai is a “dark horse” for the chief minister’s post should Parrikar opt out of politics due to his life-threatening illness.
Sardesai has been using this current state of political uncertainty to attempt to cobble up support for his chief ministerial aspirations. He strongly believes that the common Goan is being deprived of justice because of bad governance and an over ambitious state bureaucracy, which he believes, “has enough power to disturb the equilibrium….”
His GFP is gradually making inroads into BJP bastions in Goa, leaving the ruling party worried.