PANAJI
Amid murmurs of political parties sounding out potential winners in the February 14 assembly polls, well known Catholic priest Fr Eremito Rebello, on Tuesday, issued a stern warning to winning candidates against defection and party hopping after March 10, urging Goan voters to take elected MLAs to task if they are looking to switch parties after emerging victorious.
"I appeal to the people of Goa, if any MLA wins on one party ticket and then joins another, then all the people of Goa should gherao them, stage a dharna outside his house and force him to resign from the party he has joined and request the MLA to re-contest again," the priest said in a video message uploaded to social media.
Rebello, who has led several popular agitations and for years now has emerged as the face of Goa Church's activism forays, also said that people need to bring erring MLAs to task.
"People should not keep quiet this time. Everyone, those who are politicians, winners, losers and people, all the people of Goa should put them in place. If we do not, this will continue... We (the people) have to bring them on track, no one else will be able to do it," Rebello said.
Defections have been the bane of Goa's politics in its recent history, but the phenomenon appears to have peaked in the period between 2017-22 with the strategy of defection dominating political play. As many as 15 Congress MLAs defected (most of them to the BJP), while two MLAs from the MGP also joined the BJP. One Goa Forward MLA Jayesh Salgaokar also joined the BJP just before the February 14 polls.
While the Bombay High Court bench in Goa formally approved the merger of breakaway Congress and MGP MLAs into the BJP last week, according to Rebello, the issue of defection was not strictly a legal one.
"After you are elected, if you leave the party for which people have voted for and join another party... you may say that the court of law can do nothing to us, but I want to say, this is not a matter of court, this is a matter of conscience," Rebello said.
"When people vote for you, they vote from their conscience. Therefore, morality and ethics is applicable here and not law. Therefore, if you betray people and join other parties, then this time people will not stay quiet," he added.
