The BJP in Goa has lost its head, figuratively speaking.
Some months back it had announced that Chief
Minister Laxmikant Parsekar would be the face of the
party for the elections. All that is now water under the
Chapora bridge and the BJP has suddenly discovered
that it has no leader. At a press conference, Union minister in
charge of Goa elections, Nitin Gadkari hinted that the elected
MLAs would select the chief minister and that person could
very well be Parsekar or even Manohar Parrikar who resigned
half-way through the term to take up the post of Union Defence
Minister.
Although Pramod Mahajan was the brain behind the plan
to eclipse the MGP and take over its electoral assets, Parrikar
was the architect of the rise of the BJP in Goa from a party of
four MLAs to 21 in 2012. He kept the BJP alive and ticking from
2005 to 2012 when it was in the opposition and led it to an impressive
victory in 2012. In many ways, it is difficult to imagine
the BJP in Goa without Parrikar and
that is probably its weakness. The
party cannot go to the polls without
Parrikar and the dilemma that
it faces is how to make him the face
of campaign without making him
contest. Gadkari seems to have
cleverly resolved this problem by
hinting that Parrikar could return
without promising; by cajoling an
electorate into believing that the
Defence Minister is runner without
putting him in the race. It’s a clever
ruse which might work on the electorate,
or backfire.
The flip side of this dilemma is that the BJP has failed to build
and nurture the second rung of leaders in the State. While politics
in the state tends to revolve around personalities the danger
of this approach is that the party tends to flounder when
that personality is taken out of the system. Consequently, the
party cannot win in Goa without Parrikar. The party cannot
win in Gujarat without Narendra Modi and the party cannot
win at the national level without Modi. Just like how the Congress
cannot do without the Gandhi family.
On another level, was Gadkari’s statement also aimed at
skewing the polls in Panaji in Sidharth Kunkalienkar’s favour?
A victory for Babush Monserrate or AAP candidate Valmiki
Naik will effectively shut the door on Parrikar’s return. So, was
this a way of telling voters in the Panaji constituency that if
they want Parrikar back they will have to back the BJP candidate
so that he can vacate it for him?
The present situation has exposed the BJP and it needs to
identify talent to create alternate leaders if it wants to be a long
time player or it will suffer the same fate as the Congress.
