SPOTLIGHT | GOA'S POLITICAL CAULDRON ON BOIL

The BJP government is grappling with corruption charges, judicial setbacks on land-use policies, and internal power struggles, prompting talks of a cabinet rejig.

PANAJI
A stream of recent happenstances related to governance and politics give a sense that Goa's political landscape, largely defined by muscled individual satraps, is undergoing a churn with political entities on either side of the fence -- ruling and Opposition -- repositioning themselves with the upcoming Zilla Panchayat elections due later this year and the General Assembly elections slated for early 2027, playing on the back of their minds.

Even before the tremors could ebb on the jobs-for-cash and then the land-grab scams -- the latter partly re-ignited by the dramatic escape from police custody of Sulaiman Siddiqui, the ruling dispensation came to be hit by former minister Pandurang Madkaikar's charges of "rampant corruption" alleging that "ministers are busy counting money".

Madkaikar, a multiple-term ex-MLA and minister even cited his own hefty payoff to an unnamed minister for facilitating the movement/clearance of his personal work file through the minister-bureacrat stonewall. The charge made on camera sent ruling party politicians into a tizzy with several ministers, including Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, attempting to steer clear from the controversy and exhorting their former colleague to name the culprit minister.

Then came the twin blows from the judiciary, hitting at the core of the government's seemingly active support to the real estate lobby running riot along the countryside with big-ticket projects on the back of the Town and Country Planning Department liberally converting large chunks of land via controversial amendments to the TCP Act.

First, the Bombay High Court at Goa censured the TCP department and its officials for undervaluing the prescribed fees for conversion of land causing a loss to the exchequer, and more recently, delivering the order which struck down the rules for changing land-use zoning under section 17(2) of the TCP Act in the garb of "correcting" inadvertent errors in the Regional Plan 2021.

According to a top BJP leader, the series of events have impacted the power equations within the Sawant government. He said the party's national general secretary B L Santosh, who was in the State recently, is expected to report the affairs to the party's top bosses who may issue damage-control directives to Chief Minister Sawant to take corrective measures and stem the negative backlash against the party.

One such measure that Sawant may be asked to take, the BJP leader said, is to rejig his cabinet team. Another will be at the organisational level, where the newly installed State president, Damu Naik, will shape the party's structure to face the two upcoming electoral battles -- the Zilla Panchayat elections later this year and the all-important General Assembly elections due in less than two years in February-March of 2027.

Currently top-heavy with almost every electorally muscled politician that dots Goa's political landscape in the saffron party's fold and some of them, particularly Calangute MLA Michael Lobo, publicly singing incongruent tunes, the ruling party leadership's hand may be forced into taking drastic steps before it can implode, the leader said.

INDI Alliance unity at crossroads

Opposition unity, seen as crucial to challenging the BJP, is weakening due to growing rifts between Congress and AAP.

There could not have been a worse time than now for 'Opposition unity' which many political observers say is paramount if they are to make a fight of any electoral battle against the power-packed ruling BJP.

During and soon after the Lok Sabha elections last year, three Opposition parties -- Congress, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Goa Forward Party (GFP) -- who have representation in the current assembly were bonding well as constituents of the national INDI alliance.

But in more recent months, the Congress and the AAP have been seemingly moving apart, making moves at the ground level on each other's turf. For instance, the Congress' block committee first blew the "no alliance with AAP" bugle from Benaulim several months ago. Taking the cue, the party's block unit in Velim followed suit.

Both Benaulim and Velim, are currently represented by Venzy Viegas and Cruz Silva of the AAP, whose leadership did not take the public outbursts by the Congress in these two constituencies too kindly, sharpening the divide between the two parties.

Also, the chasms between the two parties elsewhere in the country have further damaged the prospects of Opposition in Goa. For instance, Congress and AAP failed to have any truck, first at the Haryana State elections and more recently in Delhi, a factor considered to have played a primal role in the BJP winning both these States handsomely.

For the record, the AAP for now has publicly announced it will have no truck with the Congress either in the upcoming Zilla Panchayat polls later this year or at the Assembly elections in 2027. The announcement came from none other than AAP's senior leader Atishi Singh while on her recent visit to the State.

The Congress on the other hand has preferred to stay mum and not make any comments on the issue of tying up with AAP for elections, saying it is too early to do so. Congress State president, Amit Patkar, has steadfastly refused to comment on Atishi's statement. "It is too premature to comment on an alliance for the 2027 assembly elections," Patkar said in response.

Leader of the Opposition, Yuri Alemao, while acknowledging that people in Goa want the opposition to unite, said it would be too early to make any statement on the next Assembly elections as there are still two years to go. Alemao said it is not the right time to talk about alliances as the election season is not approaching yet.

"Every political party will work to strengthen itself and increase its own cadres in the State. The Congress had decided six to eight months ago to try to maintain its ground position where the party traditionally has a strong footing. Many people are thinking of joining the Congress party," Alemao said of his party's manoeuvres at the grassroots level in constituencies represented in the Assembly by the AAP.

"In the present situation, the people of Goa want all opposition parties to stay together. During the Assembly session, the Opposition parties will be together and raise the issues of the people," he said.

Noted lawyer Cleofato Coutinho, who also often participates in local news debates as an independent political commentator, agrees that a united Opposition is quintessential for the battle to be even in 2027. "The potential of this 'Opposition unity' factor was proved in the Lok Sabha election at least in South Goa. It will give the ruling BJP a huge advantage if the political parties in the Opposition go their different ways," Coutinho said.

Coutinho said Opposition parties coming together to fight the might of the ruling BJP is paramount but recent developments show that their unity is in disarray.

"There are problems for each individual party who are in the Opposition space to contribute to this unity. The RGP is saying, forget Opposition unity, and that it is building its party to fight the BJP on its own," Coutinho said. "As for the Congress, individual leaders who are aspirants in constituencies where AAP has electable leaders feel they will lose out if an alliance is eventually struck and therefore are opposing it," he said.

"As for AAP, there are some leaders who feel they have a chance of winning if in an alliance and support it. Others in the party are opposing it," he added.

Oppn parties' organisational weakness

As the situation stands, political parties in the Opposition lack the organisational backup that the ruling BJP enjoys.

For instance, the BJP recently displayed its time-tested organisational strength by holding elections to its party units at the constituency (mandal) level and the two districts which culminated in the unanimous election of its former Fatorda legislator Damodar (Damu) Naik as State president replacing Rajya Sabha MP Sadanand Shet Tanavade.

None of the Opposition parties can match this strength in the BJP's electoral armour, which clearly puts the saffron outfit perennially in pole position, election after election.

However, as all electoral battles can be called only when the last vote is cast and counted, the political arena in Goa is unlikely to stay static

in the upcoming months going into the ZP polls this year-end or the nearly two years until the State Assembly elections due in 2027. Only, the churn, it seems, has already begun and the imperative changes in the dynamics of politics, much as was the case for decades in Goa, will be keenly watched.