PANAJI
The idea of Opposition unity to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the two seats in Goa at the Lok Sabha elections in 2024 has taken a beating even before it can take off with indications that the deliberations between Goa leaders of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and its national leadership in Delhi last week ending with a decision that the newest 'national' party will go electorally solo from here on.
"We will strengthen our presence in the State and fight all upcoming elections with full force, whether it is the Lok Sabha elections, Zilla Panchayat elections, or future assembly elections in Goa. Our ultimate objective is to establish a government that genuinely serves the interests of the Goan people," AAP's Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, and the party's general secretary (Organisation) was quoted as saying in his discussions with the Goa leaders.
Pathak, within two days of the meeting in Delhi, dissolved the party's Goa organisational setup but retained only the State convenor Amit Palekar. He also announced in the same order that the new organisational structure will be announced soon.
The logic behind an electoral solo strategy is driven by the political logic that AAP and the Congress are in a direct contest for political space in Punjab and some other States where the party has invested in building robust organisations and are due for elections soon, including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, according to one local AAP leader who was privy to the Delhi meetings.
In Goa, AAP has established a toehold in the political discourse with its two legislators -- Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva -- playing a visible role in the Opposition but the party falls woefully short in organisational strength, a weakness apparently recognised by the Central leadership evident from the dissolution of the unit.
Any hopes of opposition unity harboured by the Congress, which is the principal opposition party in Goa although severely dented by the mass defection of eight of its eleven legislators, were further dented by the announcement of the one-MLA Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP) that it will contest both the Lok Sabha seats.
It will take more doing than mere 'vote-splitter' rhetoric it often uses to bait these two emerging political players -- AAP and RGP -- if the grand old party hopes to salvage the Opposition unity its Leader of Opposition Yuri Alemao, so arduously labours to establish on the House floor and replicate it on the electoral grounds of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
