The political juggernaut is on a roll once again. The Congress appears to be on shaky ground yet again. A day after Congress MLA from Cuncolim, Clafacio Dias, threw broad hints of joining the BJP bandwagon, GPCC President Girish Chodankar sent out mixed signals on Friday leaving one to wonder if this is part of a bigger political ploy.
The Congress is trying to force Goa Forward out of coalition playing the insecurity card. But the bigger question is, how secure is the grand old party? Clafacio, on Thursday had spoken about how he is not in a position to provide jobs and how he cannot afford to give donations and sponsorships. An indication that he is looking beyond Congress. Come Friday, Clafacio denies moves of switching sides and Girish roots strongly for his Cuncolim MLA. There is a rider here. The GPCC chief surprisingly does not rule out the possibility of some of his party legislators falling prey to lucrative offers from the BJP while also conceding that his party is struggling to keep its flock together.
Given such Congress insecurity, and the fact there is no Operation Vijai from the BJP in sight, the Goa Forward supremo will be in no position to make a suicidal switch. A reduced strength of Congress will only be detrimental to plans of forming a new government since there is every possibility of Vijai and his men being left stranded. Undoubtedly, a sense of insecurity prevails over the Goa Forward over their political future in the current dispensation, but the Congress at this point in time doesn’t appear to be a stable alternative. News of Clafacio’s probable entry into the BJP comes after names like Ravi Naik, Digambar Kamat, Isidore Fernandes and Francis Silveira have done their rounds.
Clafacio’s major grouse is that Goa Forward is blocking major developmental works in Cuncolim constituency to pull him down to favour their own aspirant. And apparently, the only possible way Clafacio finds is to counter this by joining the saffron party. This move could also help the Cuncolim MLA to exact revenge since the redundancy of Goa Forward in the dispensation would become increasingly obvious.
Clafacio is currently pushing the onus on his supporters. But talks like these are purely for public consumption and have no political significance. Political leaders never actually go entirely by the voices of their followers since such a path may not lead them to the pinnacle of their political fortunes. For all their shows of unity and protests, the frustration within the Congress is becoming increasingly obvious.
There are clear indications that the field is wide open for the BJP to prey upon. But at this point in time, the ball is still in Goa Forward’s court since it is aligning itself with the Independents. It’s only a matter of time to see who strikes first.
