The MGP-Trinamool Congress alliance may have come as a surprise to political pundits, but the fact of the matter is it’s a win-win situation for both parties. For the MGP, the alliance gives it a deal that it found tough to negotiate with its long-time ally BJP. Sudin Dhavalikar, who has been talking in riddles and metaphors suggesting committing political suicide in going with BJP, has found an opportune moment and a resurgent party with significant outreach to further its goals.
While striking an alliance with the TMC, the MGP has sought to fuel its confidence in going beyond its 2017 tally, and more importantly, it is banking on the TMC resources to see it through a high-octane election.
By moving away from its traditional partner BJP, the Dhavalikars have not only retained the confidence of party voters but have passed on a subtle message that the move of engineering a vertical split within MGP ranks cannot be forgiven and forgotten. An alliance with the BJP at this juncture could have had serious repercussions on MGP's voter base given the treatment meted out to the party in March 2019, and the humiliation of a senior legislator like Sudin.
On the flip side, TMC which has been silently making inroads in Goa, has found a perfect ally at a time when the anti-Hindu posturing by the BJP was hurting them. Partnering with an outfit that is strongly linked to a Hindutva ideology, and getting a clean chit from the MGP leadership, is just what TMC wanted to remedy a tricky political situation. Let's not forget, TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee was fire-fighting BJP's communal overtures during her visit to Goa in October. She said she didn’t want a "character certificate" from the BJP and went on to state that TMC stood for temple, mosque and church.
The alliance, moreover, puts MGP in a comfortable position even post-election. With an eye on at least five seats, a success would put the Dhavalikars in a commanding position and will give them enough scope to leverage themselves and be part of any ruling dispensation. In this context, if the BJP fails to muster a clear majority, there could be a possible coming together of secular parties to form a coalition government, and MGP could again be a crucial piece of the political puzzle.
The BJP has been rattled with MGP moving away towards TMC forcing its think tank to go into a huddle with Goa desk in-charge Devendra Fadnavis and revisiting strategies. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant’s observation that there is a mismatch between the cultures of both MGP and TMC is irrelevant given the background of BJP aligning with political leaders with contrasting ideological backgrounds in the recent past. Political parties have never been hardwired and history shows leaders have trespassed ideologies, party cultures, principles and values in the past. When we see wholesale defections and party mergers, little do politicos see the ideological or cultural mismatch. The lust for power overrides all boundaries. It's time to reconcile with this hard reality of politics.
