Assembly Elections | BJP is fighting multiple battles in Goa

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On February 9, Union Home Minister Amit Shah was campaigning door-to-door in Sankhali (Sanquelim) in Goa. The incumbent seeking re-election from Sankhali is none other than Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. Elsewhere on February 10, Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Goa, 72 hours before polls to address a rally at Mapusa. Both Sankhali and Mapusa are the only two seats where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has 100 percent home grown candidates. All of the remaining seats have turncoats from the Congress, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), and even independents.

The BJP is getting into the Goa assembly elections with a lot more baggage than just anti-incumbency. It’s not looking good for the national party that first stormed and then wormed into power over the last decade for two back-to-back terms.

BJP-Catholic Bonhomie

From no seats in 1989, when it debuted in the Goa assembly polls, to a whopping 27 seats (out of a total of 40 seats) when elections were declared for assembly elections this time, the BJP’s journey in Goa has been unbelievable. Sample this. In 1989 it cornered a mere 0.39 percent of electoral votes, and 27 years later, the saffron party won 32.5 percent of votes, including from the Catholic minorities.

In 2017, the BJP sent seven Catholic MLAs against six Hindu MLAs to the Goa Assembly. The defection of 10 MLAs from the Congress to the BJP raised the tally to an impressive 15 Catholic MLAs of a total of 27 by the time the tenure of the current assembly came to an end. In these elections, more Catholics are being fielded across Goa by the BJP.

But the BJP’s bonhomie with the Catholics that began with the late Manohar Parrikar in 2012 (when the party started giving more weightage to the Catholics) didn’t last long. Three minority MLAs quit the BJP, including the formidable Minister for Ports & Waste Management and Calangute MLA, Michael Lobo.

Lobo, a Parrikar protégé from Parra, was responsible for creating the BJP’s strongest base in Goa in Bardez, and anchoring its victory in election after election, from panchayat to Parliament. So powerful was Lobo that he rattled the BJP high command into keeping him in good humour.

However, the battle between the old Parrikar camp and the post-Parrikar triumvirate of organisational General Secretary Satish Dhond, BJP State President Sadanand Shet Tanavade and Chief Minister Pramod Sawant forced Lobo to quit the BJP, and join the Congress. Lobo’s departure could also mean the shift of the BJP in Goa from an all-inclusive secular party to a party controlled by the RSS cadre.

Dejected Cadre, Unhappy Stalwarts

Over 16 of the BJP’s 39 candidates are from the Congress. The BJP, which used to accuse the Congress of importing leaders from other parties, is itself fielding candidates imported from the Congress, the MGP, and the Goa Forward Party — this, despite having an RSS cadre at the grassroots level. The party cadre isn’t pleased with this development, in places like Saligao and Porvorim there have been opposition to these developments.

These protests reached a boiling with former BJP state executive member and son of Manohar Parrikar, Utpal Parrikar taking on BJP candidate Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate as an independent candidate. Utpal Parrikar decided to distance himself from the BJP after the party refused to field him from Panaji — an assembly seat Manohar Parrikar represented from 1994 to 2015, and for a short while in 2017.

It’s interesting that while Monserrate controlled the city corporation of Panaji for over a decade and a half, it was a tactical understanding that ensured Manohar Parrikar won the Panaji seat. Monserrate was instrumental in the 2019 defection of Congress MLAs to the BJP.

As Utpal Parrikar accused the BJP of fielding a ‘not-so-good candidate’, the party defended by stating they were following Manohar Parrikar’s legacy (of banking on the winning horse). The Panaji battle promises to spill over in neighbouring Taleigao where former BJP cadre are joining hands with the Congress to defeat Jennifer Monserrate, the incumbent MLA and Revenue Minister, and wife of Atanasio Monserrate.

The rise of former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar who resigned from the BJP to contest from Mandrem where he is stronger than Congress turncoat Dayanand Sopte of the BJP adds to the ruling party’s headache.

The disquieted leaders and upset cadre, both who feel that the party leadership has preferred ‘winnable’ imports at their cost, add to the BJPs woes. The BJP in Goa heads into polls a divided house.