Talks underway on overcoming Monserrate v/s Utpal predicament
PANAJI
In mathematics, one plus one always adds up to two, but the arithmetic of politics often throws up a different result. It is this political arithmetic that could pose an organisational conundrum for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in planning the ground campaign in its quest to secure a sixth successive win for its North Goa candidate Shripad Naik in Panaji, the assembly segment once dominantly represented by its tallest State leader, the late Manohar Parrikar.
And ironically, it is Parrikar's son Utpal, who is proving to be the spoke in the capital's saffron wheel.
Utpal's rebellion at the 2022 Assembly election when he quit the party and contested his father's seat as an Independent, has kind of unsettled the BJP's Panaji 'mandal', one of the reasons why the Lok Sabha ground campaign is yet to take off here, an insider admitted.
Although Utpal has publicly pledged his support for the BJP in this Lok Sabha elections and a third term for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the bad chemistry between him and his supporters on the one hand and current saffron flag-bearer in the capital, Revenue Minister Atanasio (Babush) Monserrate on the other is behind the lack of inertia in the ruling party's electoral machine here.
However, top party leaders are holding backroom confabulations on overcoming the Monserrate v/s Utpal predicament in the capital.
"Eventually an arrangement by which both Utpal and Monserrate will be asked to contribute to the Lok Sabha campaign in their own separate ways and styles may be hammered out," a senior party office-bearer told The Goan.
Typically in parliamentary elections, Shripad has always gained a nearly 3,000 votes margin in the Panaji assembly segment.
In 2019, the lead had dropped to 2,284 in Panaji, despite the BJP's Siddharth Kuncolienkar having lost the Panaji bye-election held simultaneously to Monserrate who was then the Congress candidate. It is unlikely he will lose much in terms of vote share this time even with the Babush-Utpal divide within, solely because the Opposition Congress-led INDIA camp has shown no signs of cashing in on the situation.
In the 2022 assembly election, Babush on the BJP ticket had polled 6,787 votes just 716 votes more than Utpal as an Independent. Elvis Gomes, who was the Congress candidate 3,175 votes and Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) Valmiki Naik's tally fell under the 1,000-mark at 777 votes.
The individual tallies of these four candidates, quite clearly asserts the strong advantage the BJP has in the capital city but the saffron camp will be hard pressed to ensure voters come out and make up a decent turnout on voting day.
INDIA-Cong invisible too
While the saffron camp, quite uncharacteristically, is yet to have its ground campaign take off in the capital city, the opposite INDIA-Congress camp is no better.
Gomes is nowhere to be seen and the AAP's setup in the capital is yet to get down to the ground other than holding campaign-related press conferences.
In fact Panaji, despite having public issues galore to latch on to in a poll campaign amidst all the mess and chaos of the ongoing 'smart city' works, seems insulated from the electioneering noise even with elections barely 10 days away.
And, the only election related activity in the capital happens to be the daily media briefings held here solely because both, the BJP and the Congress, have their State headquarters in the capital city.
Councillors-led team to be
activated at eleventh hour?
Sources in the Monserrate camp, which was busy in the wake of the Taleigao panchayat elections, meanwhile, have said that the Panaji team which is led mostly by councillors of the Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), will be activated for the Lok Sabha campaign at the eleventh hour.
"There is nothing to worry. Babush will organise the campaign for the BJP candidate Shirpad Naik in time. Panaji will be covered and the electoral target achieved," said a senior CCP councillor.
