The 2022 election may have not gone down the wire as expected, but it did end up exposing the ugly side of a few opportunistic candidates. The MGP led by Sudin Dhavalikar and Independent candidate from Curtorim constituency Aleixo Reginaldo, both of whom crossed swords with the BJP, have instantly extended support to the government with an eye on a cabinet berth.
The elections have given BJP a clear majority leaving it in a position to pick and choose. But on the flip side, we have politicos who offer themselves on a platter for the fear of being politically irrelevant for the next five years, thereby exposing their wolfish hunger for power.
One of the striking features of the season was an overcrowded electoral space with a melee of players big and small jostling for individual spaces. The MGP went with TMC while firmly ruling out an alliance with BJP. That’s not all. Buoyed by the pre-poll sentiment of a larger win, and the game of numbers playing out between BJP and Congress, Dhavalikar had strategically placed himself against the BJP and even took potshots at Pramod Sawant.
In Curtorim, Reginaldo launched a virtual assault against the BJP, not only in the run-up to the elections but ever since 2017 when Congress was pushed to the Opposition benches. Known to be a fierce critic of the BJP, castigating the government over policy decisions and accusing the CM of graft, Reginaldo had been talking sharply of dethroning the BJP government and saving Goa of a catastrophic situation. The constant barbs being traded against the bonhomie extended by the BJP was a testimony of his bitter rivalry.
But a clear mandate to the BJP has exposed Sudin and Reginaldo who projected himself as the messiah of the secular space by playing on minority sentiment. Their viewpoints changed dramatically, and the political space became a race-course for these power-hungry leaders. Sudin and Reginaldo became the first to extend support to the BJP government and renegade on their anti-BJP arguments. The newly elected Curtorim MLA continues to attribute his decision to his supporters and strikes a religious chord by invoking God.
On the face of it, such U-turns are not only unprincipled but reflect an acute hunger for power and cannot be passed off in the name of development because it has ‘bluff’ written all over it. It’s bizarre that politicians change parties, ideologies and manipulate the gullible voter to achieve their singular objective of usurping power.
We fail to understand how Sudin considers supporting the BJP overnight when he has dismissed pre-poll or post-poll alliances with the party. How does Reginaldo change his stance when he has been all along propagating hatred towards the BJP? Reginaldo may have earned notoriety for his U-turns of Congress, BJP, AAP, TMC before contesting as an Independent, but this one is a U-turn against his own preaching. He has made it amply clear that pragmatic ideologies are no longer relevant in electoral politics.
The decisions of Sudin and Reginaldo are against the mandate, and reek of sheer opportunism under the guise of development. The electorate is taken for granted once again.
