Political power at its worst sees no boundaries, party barriers or ethics. Call it brazen murder of democracy, arm-twisting or suit-case politics, this BJP central leadership’s ploy has taken the wind out of the Congress sails. Just at a time when Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s health is deteriorating and two other former ministers Francis D’Souza and Pandurang Madkaikar remaining out of bounds, the BJP broke through the Congress ranks to reduce their numbers and deny them the status of the single largest party.
Mandrem MLA Dayanand Sopte had vowed allegiance to his party at a meeting at CLP leader Chandrakant Babu Kavalekar’s residence on Monday. But in a surprise turnaround, he along with another loyalist Subhash Shirodkar found the BJP offer too hard to resist. All those assurances to their party went flying out as both MLAs air-dashed to New Delhi in a midnight operation. If BJP had snatched power from the Congress in March 2017, they just managed to engineer yet another coup and cling on to power. The rug was pulled from under the Congress with clinical precision from Delhi, leaving the party red-faced.
The Congressmen once again lost the political plot. It has essentially squandered the opportunity they fancied since it no longer remains the single largest party. However, the party leadership should own up to its failure of holding its flock together, since they were consistently beating their chests on unity. In fact, rumblings were heard some few weeks back with even Goa Forward supremo Vijai Sardesai forewarning the party of a break-up, and it was an open secret that BJP was hobnobbing with Shirodkar for a long time. Horse-trading is not new to Goan politics, and history shows that politicos always preferred to swim with the tide.
However, this political about-face has once again exposed the shady underbelly of Goan politics where there is scant regard for principles and morals. People voted for a Congress candidate in Sopte while rejecting BJP’s sitting chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar. The mandate was clearly for the Congress. Ironically, Sopte has compromised and acted against the very people’s mandate. On the flip side, the BJP in a desperate bid to accommodate Sopte has given given a cold shoulder to Parsekar. It remains to be seen how Shirodkar reconciles with BJP’s Mahadev Naik whom he had defeated in the 2017 elections, unless if Shirodkar is happy with the deal he struck and calls it quits.
Goa’s political equation in changing at a brisk pace. Yesterday they were Congressmen, today they turned
saffron. Colours have changed overnight. Sheer lust for power in Goa has exposed the outright disrespect for people’s mandate and the Shirodkar-Sopte turnaround only goes to show an impetuous disregard for voters and
all electoral processes. Money power and political dominance prevails.
