A day after the High Court verdict on a bunch of petitions challenging ward reservations for Municipal Councils was out, nominations began pouring in thick and fast. A total of 132 filed papers for civic polls and 38 nominations were received for CCP elections. While all 30 candidates of Panaji MLA Atanasio Monserrate alias Babush filed their nominations on Tuesday with great fanfare, the bitter acrimony within the BJP ranks was out on display in the capital city.
Several BJP leaders who did not found favour with the BJP-backed Babush panel jumped into the fray as independents with open support coming in from party stalwarts like former Panaji MLA Siddharth Kuncalienker, spokesperson Dattaprasad Naik and Utpal Parrikar. In fact, they accompanied candidates in open opposition to the BJP nominees.
Contrary to the argument that elections are not contested on party lines, BJP heavyweights backing candidates outside the panel is an obvious indication of the rift within. Utpal and Kuncalienker have not only stoked the fire by asking Babush to back candidates outside his panel but have drawn the battle lines. Ironically, Babush’s outbursts against the BJP leaders accusing them of ‘jumla’ and challenging their collective might in Panaji only reflect the helplessness of the party leadership to mediate.
Utpal, Siddharth and Dattaprasad may have reasons to justify their opposition to the Monserrate-led BJP panel because key names are left out. Names like Sheetal Naik - BJP Mahila president, Vaidehi Naik, Menino da Cruz, Rekha Khande and Pundalik Dessai don’t figure in the BJP list. On the contrary, Babush’s son Rohit, a rank newcomer on the political turf, gets the go-ahead. How does the BJP leadership reconcile with such family raj and agree to dump seasoned party workers? And what moral right does the BJP has to lecture parties like Congress on politics by inheritance when it is failing to check it in its own ranks?
The CCP elections have already exposed the chinks in the BJP armoury, at least in Panaji, as much as it has exposed the failure of the leadership to reign in party discipline. Babush is the elected representative of Panaji, but ironically he has not got the mandate on the BJP ticket. He got elected on a Congress ticket. In allowing the entire electoral space to a legislator whom they never considered their own, the party leadership is taking a very risky gamble.
If the CCP election is seen as the semi-final ahead of the Assembly polls in 2022, the BJP leadership must get into damage control mode instead of creating a false illusion of ‘all is well’. Babush’s statement that his panel will win all 30 seats even if Utpal and Siddharth campaign against him is an early indication of the action to follow. The CCP election is headed for a fiery contest, and it only remains to be seen how the BJP is going to salvage itself from the murky situation it is in.
