Exit ‘josh’, enter ‘sleep mode’? The flurry of political activity may have died down soon after Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar was discharged last week from GMC after his health stabilized, but that didn’t stop leaders from discreetly working out possible permutations and combinations. While Plans B and C are kept in cold storage for now, the recent plan doing the rounds is about keeping the assembly under suspended animation with the governor taking interim control.
The BJP leadership’s stoic silence over its moves has not only left the allies confused, but has built up a fair amount of trust deficit. It has forced them into reconciliation that governor’s intervention would be a better option than Assembly dissolution. Also, coalition partners are left guessing over BJP’s plan for byelection in three assembly segments. Even Speaker Pramod Sawant’s recent presence at an event in Salcete was enough to trigger speculations of a leadership successor. The state politics may be visibly low on josh, but the silence is high on suspense.
On the other side, the Congress is playing a waiting game, but the fissures within the party are out in the open once again. At a time when the Congress is projecting a united front, even the screening of Lok Sabha election candidates has thrown up challenges. The leadership which is perennially facing vertical splits within party will have tough choices to make while maintaining a straight face on unity.
Consider the case of two lady candidates “ Valanka Alemao and Pratima Coutinho. Questions are already doing the rounds in the Pratima camp over the validity of Valanka’s candidature. Her Congress membership has come in focus. The third member in the fray has been the seasoned Francisco Sardinha who has served as Lok Sabha MP earlier. The paradox of old faces and new guard will be tested once again.
Back to State politics, St Andre MLA Francis Silveira has thrown a bombshell on his own party colleagues vouching for Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to take over the leadership mantle from Parrikar. This comes against the backdrop of the party recently going all guns blazing against Jr Rane while waiting for an opportune time to seize the advantage from the government. That’s not all. A few days back Congress veteran Pratapsingh Rane openly heaped lavish praise on North Goa MP Shripad Naik while raising his LS election pitch.
It is amusing to see Goa Pradesh Congress Committee President Girish Chodankar resorting to desperate fire-fighting to salvage the situation. Rooting for a rival candidate on assumption of his weakness, despite the fact the person in question is a sitting MP goes a long way to explain how the Congress is running out of excuses while defending its over-ambitious partymen.
