The BJP in Goa will be forming the government for a record third time braving anti-incumbency, the tag of defection engineers, reclaiming its lost vote share of 2017, and even bettering its seats that will be constituted for the eighth Goa legislative assembly. The saffron party will again be in the driver’s seat of a state that was perceived to be minority leaning. The case is closed.
A Saffron Resistance
The BJP in Goa has won 20 seats this time, seven more than what it won in 2017. The Congress slipped from 17 seats in 2017 to 11 in 2022. In terms of vote share too, the BJP improved from 32.5 percent in 2017 to 33.4 percent in 2022. The Congress continues its slide: from 30.78 percent in 2012 to 28.4 percent in 2017, and to 23.33 percent in 2022.
This was the first election after the death of former Chief Minister/Union Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, and though there were doubts that his loss would pull the BJP back, the Goan electorate has emphatically voted in favour of continuity and good governance plank. The issues raised by the Opposition in Goa, from unemployment to sale of government jobs, from an unwanted coal hub to a delay in mining, from rising prices to corruption, none seem to have dented the BJP’s performance, and it has stunned pollsters who predicted a hung-assembly.
What worked for the BJP was a split of opposition votes facilitated by AAP, the TMC and the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP). While AAP bagged two seats in the traditional Congress bastion of Salcette, winning the Benaulim and Velim seats, the RGP took away St. Andre, a traditional Congress seat. Most of Congress’ losses were narrow, and facilitated by a divided anti-incumbent vote.
New Political Stars
While the BJP may have won the majority, it was the Congress that has produced a string of upsets including sweet revenge on defectors who deserted the party.
In Quepem, first-timer Altone D’Costa defeated Deputy Chief Minister Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar by over 3,000 votes. Kavlekar has been winning this seat for over a decade, and was Congress’ Leader of the Opposition who defected with 10 Congress MLAs in 2019.
The outgoing Congress Legislative Party Leader and former Chief Minister Digambar Kamat defeated Deputy Chief Minister Manohar Babu Azgaonkar at Margao by a record 7000-plus votes. Azgaonkar had defected from the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party in 2019 to the BJP. Another upset was former State Youth Congress Chief Sankalp Amonkar defeating Urban Development Minister Milind Naik for the Mormugao seat by over 2,000 votes. While Naik was accused of a sex scandal and dropped by his party, Amonkar himself gained infamy by being featured in a sting operation days before the polls.
Many BJP state leaders survived scares from new entrants. The BJP’s Anatansio ‘Babush’ Monserrate survived a defeat at the hands of late Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar by a mere 670+ votes. Even Goa’s Chief Minister Pramod Sawant, who was trailing behind Congress’ Dharmesh Sanklani for most of the rounds of counting, won by a mere 375 votes for the Sankhali constituency. Congress’ Amit Patkar lost to Power Minister Nilesh Cabral by 672 votes leaving the BJP bosses much to think about for the future.
Possibly the most dramatic result of these elections was Congress’ Delilah Lobo defeating BJP leader and former Social Welfare Minister Dayanand Mandrekar for the Siolim constituency. Delilah became the first woman, the first non-Hindu and the first Congress candidate, to win this Hindu-majority seat.
However, the biggest star of the show would easily be the Congress’ Michael Lobo. The former BJP minister who joined the grand old party and asked for five seats got his candidates elected in four of the five seats. All these seats are in Bardez Taluk and Congress’ biggest win in North Goa’s 21-odd seats in over a decade and a half.
AAP And RGP
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s has been contesting the polls in Goa since 2014, and has won two seats this time: Venzy Viegas has defeated former Chief Minister Churchill Alemao of the TMC for Benaulim, and Cruz D’Silva narrowly defeated the Congress’ Savio D’Silva from Benaulim. With this AAP now has two MLAs, one Zila Parishad Member, and a Sarpanch in Goa, despite losing its chief ministerial face in two successive elections.
The RGP, a regional party that was recently formed as a people’s movement against illegal migrants in Goa, has won the St Andre seat. St Andre is a traditional Congress seat that was represented by Francis Silveira who defected from the Congress to the BJP in 2019. Silviera was defeated by RGP’s Viresh Borkar.
Trouble Brewing
Despite the victory, the BJP won’t have it smooth sailing either. Minutes after winning against Utpal Parrikar, Monserrate showed expressed unhappiness against his party. Outgoing Health Minister Vishwajeet Rane had put up a photo of Karnataka Congress President DK Shivkumar on his WhatsApp status days before the counting leaving many speculating. Both are former Congressmen with deep roots in their old party, and both would be ambitious enough to upset the status quo if Sawant continues as Chief Minister.
Goa’s wait for electoral stability is far from over.
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