Suddenly, there is lavish praise of former PWD minister Sudin Dhavalikar. And there is a deafening silence from Sudin in return. It was not too long ago that Chief Minister Pramod Sawant squarely blamed Sudin for failing to adhere to the Common Minimum Programme of the coalition and dropped him from his cabinet. On Wednesday, there appeared to be a change of heart and the CM publicly called Sudin a leader with a vision. However, with electioneering picking up pace, there is still no clarity in which way the visions of BJP and MGP are directed.
MGP has done a rethink after its instant retaliation following the infamous split on the intervening night of March 26 where Deepak Dhavalikar threatened to field candidates for all the vacancies. The roar of the Lion was loud and clear and the sole motive appeared to be to spoil the BJP election party with candidates eating into the saffron vote-bank. Days later, the MGP decides to contest only Shiroda, while throwing in the towel in the other 2 constituencies and the Lok Sabha elections.
The climb down from the retaliatory posturing of MGP appears baffling, and so does the shower of praise from the CM. While the party continues to focus its energies on Shiroda, it has let go the sympathy wave that the Dhavalikars gained on account of the MGP split. There could be possibly two reasons behind this: One, being Dhavalikars didn’t want to take risks with losses in areas in which it does not have a strong presence. Secondly, every election costs ‘tons’ of money and MGP’s revenge politics here could prove to be a costly affair.
Winning the Shiroda election may help the MGP claw back into the game, but in the larger context, much will depend on the results of the other two constituencies which are going for a by-poll and how the numbers stack up. Sudin, by not pulling out of the coalition has kept his cards close to the chest and not declared an open war with the BJP. Withdrawing support to the government would not have benefitted him either.
Now that the battle lines are drawn, it remains to be seen who will have the last laugh. The Shiroda bypoll will be a three-cornered contest between Subhash Shirodkar, Deepak Dhavalikar and Mahadev Naik. But Ponda constituency, which is Sudin’s home ground, will be the cynosure of all eyes and could prove decisive in the South Goa Lok Sabha math. And this is where the CM’s words of praise make sense. With the absence of an MGP candidate at the Lok Sabha poll, much will depend on which way Ponda votes. Also to be seen is how the MGP pockets in other areas cast their ballot. If at all the MGP is planning to respond with a strategical strike to BJP’s surgical strike, May 24 will tell.
