PANAJI
Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate has set political circles abuzz with the renovation of his old office premises in Santa Cruz, barely two weeks after cryptically declaring that the BJP would “rewrite history” and win the constituency in 2027.
On Friday, Monserrate sought to downplay the move, insisting the office was being reopened to serve people of Tiswadi.
“Since I am the lone MLA from Tiswadi in the cabinet, I am opening the office to help people of the taluka. There is no conflict with the local MLA, Rudolf Fernandes. I am doing what is good for the party,” he told reporters.
The activity at the St Cruz premises -- the same one from where he functioned as MLA of the constituency between 2012 and 2017 -- has nonetheless triggered speculation.
His earlier remark that “Santa Cruz will have a BJP MLA this time” had already spun heads, given the party’s failure to ever win the seat. The closest it came to winning it was in 2002, when current MLA Rudolf Fernandes' mother, the late Victoria Fernandes, barely managed to retain the seat for the Congress by a wafer-thin 42-vote margin against the saffron party's Anil Hoble.
Fernandes, the sitting MLA, had won Santa Cruz in 2022, but on a Congress ticket. He defected to the BJP with seven other Congress MLAs six months later.
Monserrate’s latest signals are being read as subtle messaging to the saffron leadership, echoing his manoeuvres to appropriate political turf ahead of the 2022 polls. Back then, Monserrate had predicted BJP victories across all five Tiswadi constituencies. The party eventually secured only Panaji, where he himself won, and Taleigao, retained by his late wife Jennifer. Cumbharjua and Santa Cruz went to the Congress, while Sant Andre was won by Revolutionary Goans Party’s Viresh Borkar.
Despite the BJP’s record, Monserrate’s influence in Santa Cruz remains significant. He won the seat in 2012 on a Congress ticket against the tide of a saffron wave that had swept Goa then.
His return to the constituency now, through the symbolic reopening of his office, is being viewed as a calculated flex of political heft. Whether the move is organisational outreach or groundwork for 2027, the unpredictable revenue minister has once again ensured that his signals are noticed -- politically deft, dizzying, and deliberate.
