While the ambiguity over BJP’s Lok Sabha candidate for South Goa continued, the party gave a new twist to the chase bringing to the table names of women in the name of women empowerment. The after-thought of including women candidates is intriguing because it comes against the backdrop of the State leadership originally shortlisting five candidates for the South ticket.
Going by the party choice and its surveys, there were two front-runners in former minister Chandrakant Babu Kavlekar and former South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar, also on the list was Margao MLA Digambar Kamat and Canacona MLA Ramesh Tawadkar, both of whom subsequently opted out of the race, and finally there was less fancied former Margao MLA Damu Naik. The BJP had their cards well laid out when the first list was announced in Delhi last Saturday, and little did one realise that South Goa would turn out to be a nightmare.
The contrast between North and South scenarios is quite visible now. Shripad Naik, a veteran leader and the sitting MP has unwavering support across the party with even those in the contention, or were eyeing half-a-chance, now throwing their weight behind Naik. In the South, there appears to be a deadlock, and Kavlekar, who was deep into his campaign, has been stopped in his tracks.
BJP is known for its hard political strategising. They plan meticulously in the form of multiple ground surveys before shortlisting candidates. In the case of South Goa, there is a visible hesitancy and a lack of confidence in the very candidates who are shortlisted.
Moreover, the belated move to scout for women candidates, in particular zeroing down on Sulakshana Sawant, makes it obvious that the BJP is creating a smokescreen to buy time and camouflage its misery that is flowing underneath. We call this a distraction because BJP considers winability as the biggest qualifier at every election, way ahead of other parameters. Going by that yardstick, the party is not in a position to take a gamble with lesser-known women candidates in South Goa.
Moreover, if winnability is the word, then the confidence the party leadership has been exuding in winning both the Lok Sabha seats appears hollow now, since it is struggling with its own candidature or waiting for Congress to make its move.
Whatever is said and done, the BJP is known for its firefighting machinery. Unlike Congressmen who go to town with political discomforts and even wash dirty linen in public, the BJP has kept the South Goa tangle a closely guarded secret. Kavlekar may have paused in his tracks, Sawaikar lays low and women candidates walk into a male-dominated bastion basking in this very moment of spotlight, but the BJP think-tank is still working.
The decision and timing of announcing candidates belong exclusively to the BJP leadership and the parliamentary board, and perhaps nobody can question their idea of searching for a woman candidate. Nonetheless, while the search continues and a sense of realisation dawns that winning South Goa may not be as easy as it once appeared, one can see flashes of indecisiveness through the walls of the tightly guarded BJP fort.
