MARGAO
It's advantage BJP in the Margao Municipal Council as Congress-turned-BJP MLA Digambar Kamat seemed to have succeeded in checkmating the Goa Forward with precision three days ahead of the crucial election for the Margao chairperson and paving the way for the Lotus to bloom in the civic body after 17 years.
Taking the Ordinance route to hold on to numbers and avert cross-voting, displaying his 27 years of political experience to break the Goa Forward Party, and ensuring his Model Margao councillors embrace the saffron party, Kamat on Sunday seemed to have finally turned the tables against the regional party.
The unfolding turn of events, beginning with the Ordinance and culminating with Kamat’s move to wean away a senior Goa Forward councillor Raju Naik to his side, has sent a message loud and clear that the former chief minister cannot be taken for granted in the scheme of things.
Local political observers say that the Congress-turned-BJP MLA did not leave anything to chance as he took upon himself the responsibility to salvage pride after the bitter defeat in the battle to control the MMC Chairperson’s post around a month ago at the hands of alliance partner Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai.
That Kamat moved the government to take to the Ordinance route to ensure his flock in the civic body do not again go astray in the October 12 polls, only goes to suggest that he has gone about the job to wrest control over the civic body with precision.
The Ordinance gave Kamat and the BJP-led group a clear advantage over the Goa Forward-backed group in the 25-member body, knowing well that none of the 15 councillors, five of whom had cross-voted in the last election, would dare repeat the act if elections are held by show of hands.
Sources said there was no reason for Kamat to break the Goa Forward by weaning away four-time councillor Raju Naik in his camp when he and the BJP were sitting pretty with 15 members in the 25-member civic body. In the no holds barred battle, however, Kamat has sent a message to Goa Forward chief Vijai Sardesai and also to the BJP leadership that he too is equally capable, if not better in playing politics.
In the run-up to the election for the post of MMC Chairperson on September 16, the Goa Forward had managed to wean away a BJP-backed councillor Sunita Paradkar from the saffron party.
That the Margao MLA got his group of councillors, who got elected on the Model Margao banner, to embrace the saffron brigade, ahead of the October 12 poll for the civic chief, is seen as an attempt to soothe ruffled feathers amongst the original BJP leaders and workers in Margao and Fatorda.
Questions were being raised in BJP quarters about why Kamat-backed Model Margao councillors have still not embraced the BJP along with the Margao MLA.
Sunday’s move to get the Kamat group to embrace the saffron party is seen as an attempt by Kamat in his inimitable fashion to silence his critics in the BJP and also sent a signal to the party bosses that his merger with the party is now complete with the entry of his councillors in the party fold.
