MARGAO
In the run up to the 2012 Assembly polls, former Chief Minister late Manohar Parrikar’s juggernaut had rolled into minority Salcete with a simple message to the minorities “ unite and defeat the Congress and save Goa from destruction.
Riding on the strong anti-Congress wave that swept the State, the Lotus bloomed for the first time in Cuncolim. That’s not all. The BJP might have won a lone seat in the minority stronghold, but the anti-Congress sentiment that prevailed then saw the Congress decimated in the Congress stronghold, winning in just two out of the eight seats at stake, reducing the party’s tally in the Assembly to nine seats.
A decade later, the BJP is in the fray in all the eight seats at stake in the taluka having the minority concentration. The ruling party, however, has a task cut out, how to get the crucial vote in the minority bastion in the absence of any pro-BJP mood or large scale anti-Congress sentiment in the taluka.
In 2012, the BJP under late Manohar Parrikar had concentrated only in constituencies, where the BJP has significant presence, leaving other seats for the anti-Congress parties and independents to checkmate the Congress. The strategy had worked wonders as the BJP opened its account in Cuncolim, while the Goa Vikas Party won two seats and Independents Avertano Furtado and Benjamin D’Silva making it to the Assembly by defeating Congress stalwarts.
The campaign for the February 14 is gaining pace and momentum, but one hasn’t yet come across a pro-BJP wave or a general anti-Congress sentiment as was prevailing in the run up to the 2012 polls.
Take note, the BJP has not ignored the minorities either. But, the manner in which late Parrikar had gone about wooing the minorities is still not seen in the minority stronghold. Instead, the task of getting the minority vote seemed to have been left for the BJP leaders to handle.
For instance, in a bid to make a political comeback, former BJP two-time MLA Damu Naik is leaving no stone unturned to woo the Catholic Scheduled Tribes on his side. Having tasted limited success in the 2021 Municipal polls when Damu’s social engineering helped to get a couple of Catholic ST candidates elected to the Margao Municipality on the BJP banner, Damu has since not stopped reaching out to the ST and other sections of the minority to wean them away from the rival Goa Forward.
Another case in point is Cuncolim constituency. With the party leadership placing its bets on Congress-turned-BJP MLA Clafacio Dias to regain the seat after a gap of five years, BJP’s game plan in Cuncolim appears simple “ consolidate its traditional vote and expect Clafacio to get the Catholic vote from the villages in the constituency towards the party.
Political observers, however, sounded a note of caution, saying the BJP may run the risk of losing the traditional vote with the leadership fielding a candidate from the minority community as was evident at least thrice over the last two decades when candidates from the minority community contesting on the Lotus symbol losing the polls miserably.
In Curtorim too, the party is banking on the young Scheduled Tribes candidate Anthony Barbosa to do the trick of winning the minority votes to keep him in good stead. Here too, observers say one has to wait and see how the traditional vote reacts and how they finally cast their vote when they enjoy other options as well to defeat the Congress.
The BJP is in the fray in Navelim for the first time around two decades. In the 2007 and 2012 Assembly polls, the BJP had played a pivotal role in defeating the Congress by tactically channelising its vote to the Save Goa Front and Independent respectively. With the BJP now in the fray, one has to wait and see how the party leads the campaign. No doubt, it is perceived in political circles, the anti-BJP vote may head for a five-way split, but party leaders too are aware that party’s traditional vote alone may not suffice for the Lotus to bloom in Navelim. Again, there’s no covert and overt attempt made to woo the minorities, but observers say BJP candidate Ulhas Tuemkar is banking on the goodwill he enjoys with a section of Muslim community to keep him in good stead.
BJP Margao candidate, Dy Chief Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar is banking on his personal rapport with the Muslim community to keep him in good stead in the coming polls. While Ajgaonkar’s capability to win the Muslim vote may not be in doubt, the task before the Dy CM and party bosses is how to retain the party’s traditional vote.
