the goan I network
MARGAO
Failure of the sitting MP Narendra Sawaikar to take a lead in Deputy Chief Minister Vijai Sardesai’s fiefdom Fatorda and the BJP’s anxiety to welcome two more opposition MLAs into the party may bring into sharp focus the relations between the BJP and the key alliance partner, Goa Forward Party once again.
Vijai Sardesai, who was holed up abroad when election results were announced on May 23, will return to Goa later mid-week, but the focus of attention will be centered on the Goa Forward party chief how he approaches these ticklish issues thrown up by the Lok Sabha elections. Simmering resentment amongst the BJP cadre brewing for some time has come out in the open after the party trailed behind the Congress in Sardesai’s constituency. Though the Congress led over the party by a slender margin of 638 votes, the result gave a handle for the party’s lower-rung leadership, right outside the counting centre, to question how the coalition partner could not ensure a lead for Narendra Sawaikar in Fatorda.
That’s not all. Another interesting episode that indeed took many a political observer by surprise right outside the counting centre on May 23 was BJP President Vinay Tendulkar’s announcement that two more Opposition MLAs will soon resign to embrace the ruling party. It was a sheer coincidence that Tendulkar’s announcement had come moments after news trickled in that Sawaikar had trailed in Fatorda and Subhash Shirodkar’s victory in Shiroda. Take note, the BJP State President’s statement that the party will take the alliance partners into confidence before welcoming the opposition MLAs in the party-fold only came after the media questioned whether the decision to split the opposition will not leave the alliance partners antagonized.
Sources in the know say the Goa Forward leadership has been vehemently opposed to the BJP engineering any further split in the opposition ranks. Sardesai is believed to have not only conveyed his stand to the Goa leadership
of the BJP but the national leadership of party as well. How the Goa Forward Chief will deal with the emerging political situation, with the BJP’s tally in the State Assembly swelling to 17 post-bypolls and is just short of three seats on having a majority on its own, remains to be keenly watched.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi returning to power for five more years and with still three more years to go for curtains to come down on the tenure of the Goa Legislative Assembly in 2022, two crucial questions may come to haunt the ruling dispensation -- whether the BJP will remain content with 17 seats and continue to rely on the crutches of the alliance partners for its survival or will move ahead and welcome the Opposition MLAs into the party-fold to achieve the magic figure of 21 MLAs in the House.
