PANAJI
Mamata Banerjee’s refusal to resign after the West Bengal poll verdict has drawn a curious parallel with a political drama that unfolded in Goa more than three decades ago.
Banerjee has alleged that the BJP “stole” the election with rigging by the Election Commission of India. She lost both her own seat and her party’s majority on May 4, yet insists she will not step down, even if the impasse her actions have thrown up can last until today (Thursday) the day that the current term of West Bengal assembly ends.
Back in 1994, Goa witnessed a somewhat similar standoff, though under very different circumstances.
Then incumbent Chief Minister Dr Wilfred de Souza refused to quit to pave way for the new government formation post the 1994 assembly election.
Unlike Mamata, De Souza had won his Saligao seat and the Congress he led had also returned as the single-largest party with 18 seats.
The Opposition alliance had won 16 seats with the MGP winning 12 and the BJP four but their chief ministerial face, Ramakant Khalap, had lost the Mandrem seat.
However, the Congress’ central observers – G K Moopanar, Ghulam Nabi Azad, and B Shankaranand – declared his rival Pratapsing Rane as CLP leader after a process he (De Souza) termed was controversial and irregular.
De Souza alleged irregularities half way through the CLP meet and dashed off to Delhi where he went incognito for a day. Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao and his aides scrambled to locate him, finally tracing him to the residence of a top legal luminary.
Rao deputed his political secretary Jitendra Prasad to defuse the crisis.
The impasse ended at a breakfast meeting with Prasad at Union Minister Eduardo Faleiro’s official residence.
A day later Rane was sworn in as chief minister by Governor Gopala Ramanujam, with De Souza installed as deputy chief minister. Jitendra Prasad himself flew to Goa to oversee the transition.
The Goa episode was marked by cloak-and-dagger manoeuvres and a touch of farce. Mamata’s defiance today carries a sharper edge, given her personal defeat, her party’s loss of power and her allegations of the ECI’s complicity in aiding BJP to rig the polls.
Yet the comical resonance remains: a leader refusing to accept political reality, holding out against the tide, and forcing the system to improvise. History, seemingly, has a way of repeating itself.
