Tag: Digambar Kamat

Eight Goa Congress MLAs, Including Former CM, Join BJP

A similar incident had taken place in 2019 when 10 Congress MLAs had switched over to the BJP.

New Delhi: Eight Goa Congress MLAs joined the ruling BJP on Tuesday and passed a resolution to merge the Congress Legislature Party with the saffron party.

Leader of Opposition Michael Lobo moved the resolution in the presence of seven other MLAs. The resolution was seconded by the former chief minister and MLA Digambar Kamat, sources said.

Earlier, BJP state president Sadanand Shet Tanavade had said eight Congress MLAs will join the ruling party.

In the 40-member Goa assembly, the Congress had 11 legislators. After the defection, the Congress has been reduced to just three, while the BJP’s ranks swell to 33. The BJP won only 20 seats, but two Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party MLAs have also defected while three independent MLAs have also extended support to the government.

Among the MLAs who shifted their allegiances are Digambar Kamat, Michael Lobo, his wife Delilah Lobo, Rajesh Phaldesai, Kedar Naik, Sankalp Amonkar, Aleixo Sequeira and Rudolf Fernandes.

In July this year, the Goa Congress was able to avert a split after the BJP claimed that six MLAs were set to join it.

The Congress has faced difficulties in keeping its flock together in Goa. In a similar move in July 2019, 10 Congress MLAs switched over to the BJP.

After the MLAs joined the BJP, chief minister Sawant took a dig at the Congress, saying while the party was undertaking a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’ (Unite India March), its MLAs were on a mission to ‘Congress chodo‘ (leave Congress).

The MLAs have joined the BJP “keeping in mind the vision of PM Narendra Modi to create a new India and for the development of Goa”, he said, according to the Indian Express.

Kamat, said: “This decision was based on circumstances. I had said in the beginning when I was not made the Leader of Opposition. What is happening in the Congress is not right. If you read the letter, it is about Congress Jodo and not Bharat Jodo. The work done under PM Modi has got earned international respect for citizens of India. My workers in Margao said the (Congress) party is doing nothing. That is why we decided to take part in the development of Goa.”

(With PTI inputs)

Amidst Allegations of Engineering Defections, Kamat Removed as ‘Permanent Invitee’ to CWC

Former Goa chief minister Kamat had last week been accused of trying to engineer a split within the Congress’s legislature party in the state after failing to attend a party meeting and going silent for a period of time.

New Delhi: Interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Sunday, July 17, removed senior Goa Congress leader Digambar Kamat as a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC).

K.C. Venugopal, a Rajya Sabha MP and the general secretary of the All India Congress Committee (AICC) issued a statement communicating Gandhi’s decision “with immediate effect”.

The move comes a week after former chief minister Kamath, along with Goa Congress MLA Michael Lobo, were accused by Congress Goa in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao of trying to engineer a split within the legislature party in the state.

According to the Indian Express, Kamat was made a permanent invitee to the CWC in April this year. While not announced as such, Kamat was thought to be the party’s chief ministerial candidate going into the Goa assembly elections in February.

Fears of a split arose when five Congress leaders of the state – Kamat, Lobo, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo – missed a meeting and then maintained radio silence thereafter. 

On July 10, Rao called a press conference and only five Congress MLAs of the 11 in the legislative assembly turned up. The party also claimed the support of a sixth, unnamed MLA. This was, however, enough to avert a split since the support of two-thirds of the MLAs in the legislature party is required to avoid disqualification of rebel legislators under the anti-defection law.

Also read: For Now, Congress May Have Dodged a Political Bullet in Goa

The day after the presser, senior Congress leader Mukul Wasnik was dispatched to Panaji to shore up the party in the state. A meeting with Wasnik was attended by all Congress MLAs except Kamat.

On July 12, the party submitted disqualification petitions against Kamat and Lobo, accusing the two leaders of colluding with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to trigger a defection. The BJP’s Goa chief minister, Pramod Sawant, however, denied his party’s role in the proceedings. 

Lobo, who was the leader of the opposition in the Goa assembly, was removed from his post.

Amidst these events, five Goa Congress MLAs were, on Saturday, July 16, dispatched to Chennai ahead of the polls for the President of India, set to take place on July 18. None of the five legislators who had gone incommunicado earlier in the month were among those flown to Chennai.

(With PTI inputs)

For Now, Congress May Have Dodged a Political Bullet in Goa

A split looked imminent in the Congress when five of its Goa MLAs missed a meeting last week. However, it seems that the rebel MLAs don’t have enough numbers to avoid the anti-defection law.

New Delhi: The Congress appears to have averted a potential split in its Goa legislative party for the time being. The party paraded five of its 11 MLAs at a press briefing on Monday, July 11 and claimed to have the support of six MLAs, although it didn’t name the sixth legislator.

The move has put the rebels in a sticky position, as at least eight MLAs should defect from the party to avoid disqualification under the anti-defection law.

The Congress high command in New Delhi sprung into action on Sunday night, July 10 when the party’s interim president Sonia Gandhi rushed senior leader Mukul Wasnik to Panjim to contain what appeared to be an escalating situation. A split looked imminent in the party when the Goa unit of the Congress was caught off guard when five of its MLAs – Michael Lobo, Digambar Kamat, Kedar Naik, Rajesh Faldesai and Delialah Lobo – missed a meeting and went incommunicado thereafter last week.

From then on, speculations were rife that the rebels within the Congress ranks may increase to eight – a necessary number for the defectors to avoid anti-defection law and merge with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Dinesh Gundu Rao, the All India Congress Committee (AICC) in-charge of Goa, immediately accused Michael Lobo, the former BJP leader who joined Congress only in January this year ahead of the assembly elections, and its own former chief minister Digambar Kamat of attempting to break the party at the BJP’s behest.

“One person – Digambar Kamat – did it to safeguard his own skin because so many cases are against him and the other person – Michael Lobo – did it for the sake of power and position. BJP wants to finish the opposition,” claimed Rao.

“BJP agents [are] trying for a two-third split in the Congress and offering huge money to MLAs to cross over,” Rao said.

Separately, former Goa Congress president Girish Chodankar has alleged that Congress MLAs were offered Rs 40 crore to join the BJP.

Although the chief minister Pramod Sawant rubbished the Congress’s accusations, the saffron party remained a talking point as the primary actor behind the latest implosion in the grand-old party because of the serendipitous presence of Union minister and Amit Shah’s close aide Bhupendra Yadav in Goa currently.

The chief minister, however, said that Yadav was in Goa to steer the pending cabinet reshuffle, although political commentators seemed to agree that the Congress in Goa is headed for a collapse. The development comes just days after the Uddhav Thackeray-led government in Maharashtra – in which the Congress was a partner – collapsed after a rebellion by Eknath Shinde.

Nonetheless, as a corrective measure, the Congress has removed Lobo from the position of its legislative party leader.

Political commentators believe that both Wasnik and Rao are clearly in the mood to take tough decisions to resurrect the party in the coastal state, and that may include overhauling the party leadership entirely.

The party, meanwhile, has moved a petition to the speaker seeking disqualification of Lobo and Kamat for “anti-party” activities.

Congress is not new to splits in Goa. In Pramod Sawant’s first term as chief minister, 10 of its legislators had joined the BJP to reduce the Congress into an irrelevant player in the assembly. But it seemed to have avoided a similar defection string at the moment.

Also read: As Congress Flounders in the Run up to 2024, a Reminder of the Miracle It Once Pulled Off

A failed attempt?

Meanwhile, both Lobo and Kamat, who went missing ahead of the party meeting to decide its strategies in the assembly session that began on July 11, have backtracked from their earlier positions against the Congress leadership, indicating a failed attempt at corralling enough MLAs to avoid the anti-defection law. Anything less than eight MLAs defecting from the party can lead to their disqualification or could force them to resign and seek re-election.

All five legislators who had gone missing attended the first day of the monsoon session of the assembly on July 11 and claimed that the Congress legislative unit was intact. The alleged engineer of the rebellion, Lobo, went on to say: “There is nothing wrong. I don’t know what is the problem. All Congress MLAs were together. We went to South Goa for a meeting on Sunday. They (Congress leaders) again wanted to have another press conference which was not required, so we did not attend it.”

Similarly, Kamat also said he was very much in the Congress, and had told Rao in a meeting on July 9 that he was “hurt by the humiliation” that he faced in the party.

Disregarding their opinion, however, the Congress suspended both the leaders for indulging in “anti-party activities.”

Ranjan Solomon, a Goa-based political analyst and civil liberties activist, said that the “tactical retreat” by both the BJP and rebels indicate that the Congress may have avoided a split at the moment. He said on July 10, the BJP looked comfortably placed to gain the advantage from the Congress’s implosion but now the party’s leaders are more reserved.

“The BJP already has a comfortable number in the assembly. With the support of 25 MLAs in the 40-member assembly, it could have increased its strength further if Congress rebels joined its ranks. But it seems that Lobo or Kamat may not have the adequate numbers to deliver any strategic advantage to the BJP as yet,” he said.

“The rebels know that resigning and seeking re-election is not an option. They need to be in enough numbers to join the BJP and continue as MLAs for the rest of the term. Since most of the alleged rebels have won from Congress strongholds, it may be very difficult for them to get re-elected. The last assembly elections were an apt example. Nine of the 10 defectors from the Congress lost their seats,” he added.

The latest episode in the Congress is clearly bad optics for the party. As a show of strength in the run-up to assembly polls earlier this year, the Congress had made all its candidates take oaths that they will remain loyal to the party and will not switch sides in any circumstance. That oath has proven to be yet another poll gimmick, despite Congress having taken immediate corrective measures.

Both Goa Deputy Chief Ministers Lose Assembly Polls

While Manohar Ajgaonkar was defeated by Digambar Kamat, Chandrakant Kavlekar was trounced by Altone D’Costa of the Congress.

Panaji: Both deputy chief ministers of Goa lost Assembly elections to their nearest Congress rivals on Thursday though their party, BJP, is on course to emerge as the single largest political formation in the state.

Deputy chief minister Manohar Ajgaonkar was defeated by the leader of the opposition and Congress candidate Digambar Kamat by a huge margin of almost 6,000 votes in the Margao Assembly constituency.

Ajgaonkar, who had been traditionally contesting from Pernem in North Goa, was this time fielded by the BJP from Margao in South Goa.

Margao has been represented in the Assembly by Kamat, a former chief minister, since 1994.

The second deputy chief minister in the Pramod Sawant-led cabinet, Chandrakant Kavlekar, lost to Congress candidate Altone D’Costa in Quepem.

Kavlekar had won from Quepem in 2017 on a Congress ticket. He shifted to the BJP in 2019 along with nine other Congress MLAs and was rewarded with the Deputy CM’s post.

D’Costa, a first-time contestant from the constituency, defeated Kavlekar by a margin of more than 3,000 votes.

Voting for the 40-member Goa Assembly took place on February 14 and counting was taken up on Thursday.

Goa Elections: Polling Underway in Goa; 301 Candidates in Fray for 40 Assembly Seats

“Voting began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm in the single-phase elections in the coastal state,” the officials said.

Panaji: Polling began Monday morning in Goa, where 301 candidates are in the fray for the 40 Assembly seats, election officials said.

“Voting began at 7 am and will conclude at 6 pm in the single-phase elections in the coastal state,” the officials said.

Over 11 lakh people are eligible to cast their votes. They include 9,590 persons with disabilities, 2,997 aged over 80 years, 41 sex workers and nine transgenders.

The counting of votes will take place on March 10.

Goa is witnessing a multi-cornered contest, with the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and other smaller parties vying to make a mark on the state’s electoral scene.

Also read: Hobbled by Voter Anger and Rebellion in Goa, BJP Turns To Familiar Ploy: Targeting Nehru

To check the spread of COVID-19, voters have been provided hand gloves at the polling stations, an election official said. Over 100 ‘all-women’ polling booths have been set up in the state for the convenience of female voters.

The prominent candidates include chief minister Pramod Sawant (BJP), leader of the opposition Digambar Kamat (Congress), former CMs Churchill Alemao (TMC), Ravi Naik (BJP), Laxmikant Parsekar (independent), former deputy CMs Vijai Sardesai (GFP) and Sudin Dhavalikar (MGP), late CM Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar and AAP’s CM face Amit Paleker.

“The average number of eligible voters per booth in the state is 672, which is the lowest in the country, ” a poll official said.

“The Vasco Assembly constituency has the highest number of 35,139 eligible voters, while the Mormugao seat has the lowest number of voters at 19,958,” he said.

The Congress and the Goa Forward Party (GFP) are fighting the election in alliance, while the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC has tied-up with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) to contest the polls.

The Shiv Sena and the NCP had also announced their pre-poll alliance, while the Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP is contesting without a tie-up with any other political party.

The Revolutionary Goans, Goencho Swabhimaan Party, Jai Mahabharat Party and Sambhaji Brigade are also in the poll fray, besides 68 independent candidates

“There are 105 all-women polling booths, also called as the ‘pink booths’. Earlier, there were was a pink booth in every constituency,” the official said.

The state had recorded 82.56% turnout during the 2017 elections. The Congress then won 17 seats. The BJP, which bagged 13 seats, was quick to stitch up an alliance with some regional outfits and independents to form government in the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP chief J P Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah campaigned in the last one month for the saffron party, which has not entered into any pre-poll alliance in Goa.

The Congress has fielded 37 candidates, while ally GFP has fielded three. Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra campaigned for the party in the coastal state.

(PTI)

Why Did the Assam CM Appoint an Enquiry Officer to Look Into a Bribery Case Already Under CBI?

The decision come in spite of the Gauhati HC having ordered the probe to be shifted. What’s more, Himanta Biswa Sarma himself was in charge of the government division involved in the scam.

New Delhi: In spite of the Central Bureau of Investigation probing the multi-crore Louis Berger corruption case in Assam since 2017 as per a Gauhati high court order, the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led Bharatiya Janata Party government – in an unusual move – has appointed an ‘enquiry officer’ to look into the case at the state level. 

The ‘enquiry officer’ is to submit a report on the “alleged complaint” on the matter within a week’s time. Notably, the state government press release issued on February 5, mandating the officer to submit the report within a week (by February 12), named only the funding organisation, Japan International Cooperation Agency, that was to assist the commissioning of a water supply project in Guwahati which never took off.

The press note stayed away from mentioning the name of the controversial consultancy firm assigned the project, United States-based Louis Berger International. LBI’s involvement had led to the ‘alleged complaints’ against the project – and later an admission by a top official of the firm under oath in the US – of them bribing Indian government officials and an unnamed minister to corner the job. 

In Assam, the water supply plan is not familiar the way the Sarma government mentioned it in its press release – “JICA assisted project”. Instead, people are familiar with the “Louis Berger controversy,” one of the first multi-crore scams in the north-eastern state. 

Paban Kumar Borthakur.

The ‘enquiry officer’, named by the Sarma government to probe the ‘alleged complaints’ is Paban Kumar Borthakur. An IAS officer of Assam-Meghalaya cadre from the 1989 batch, Borthakur serves as additional chief secretary in Assam government and reports to Sarma. 

Significantly, when the alleged scam in Assam had surfaced in mid-2015, Sarma’s name had come to light as he was the minister in charge of the Gauhati Development Department (GDD) in the Tarun Gogoi-led Congress government which had granted the consultancy for the JICA assisted water supply project to the New Jersey firm LBI.

Local media reports, quoting then Guwahati Municipal Development Authority chairman Dhiren Barua, had said that the authority “was not involved” in the selection of consultants, and it was only “done by GDD.” Baruah had said that when Louis Berger was selected as a consultant, “Himanta Biswa Sarma was the GDD minister and Ashish Kumar Bhutani was the GDD secretary. The selection took place between 2008-2009.”

The project in Assam was worth Rs 1,452 crores. 

In the run-up to the 2016 assembly elections in Assam, the BJP had made a hue and cry against that scam, as by then, the US Department of Justice had sued LBI for bribery to corner government contracts, not just in India, but in several other countries. 

As per a report of the Stanford University’s Foreign Corrupt Practices Act monitoring cell, citing US court documents, James McClung, the then senior vice-president of LBI in charge of India and Vietnam, had admitted to the court that the consultancy and management firm along with several consortium partners had paid a total bribe of US $ 976,630 to unknown government officials in India to either obtain or retain their business.

“From about 2000 until about April 2010, McClung made and concealed corrupt payments to foreign officials in India and Vietnam in order to obtain and retain contracts with government entities in those countries and to enrich LBI and co-conspirators, including McClung himself,” the university cell had noted. 

According to a PTI report, “McClung cooperated with the US government’s investigation by identifying other executives at LBI who had knowledge of bribery.” Quoting court documents, the report also says that both McLung and the other senior official found guilty, had, from 1998 through 2010, “orchestrated 3.9 million dollars in bribe payments to foreign officials in various countries in order to secure government contracts.”

In July 2016, McLung was found guilty of violating FCPA and sent to jail for one year and one day with a fine of US $ 200.

However, the Modi government’s onslaught on the Tarun Gogoi-led Assam government when it came to that scam began in mid-2015 itself, after the US Department of Justice filed a case in the district of New Jersey on July 17, 2015. By then, as the Digambar Kamat-led Congress government in Goa made way for a BJP government, an enquiry by the state crime branch was announced against charges of bribery by LBI and its consortium partners to that government as well, to corner yet another JICA-assisted water supply project. 

In mid-July, the BJP government in Maharashtra also announced a probe on several infrastructure projects handed over to LBI  by the previous Congress government.

The BJP’s proactive approach on the case was to send out a message to the voting public then that Modi’s party and his government were opposed to the corruption by the Congress governments. 

Going by that script, in July 2015, the BJP published a booklet in New Delhi on the alleged water supply scam in Goa and Assam and termed Sarma a ‘key suspect’. As per a report in Assam Tribune then, the BJP parliamentary board released the booklet titled Water Supply Scam 2010 in Goa and Guwahati. That meeting of the BJP MPs, which included then junior minister from Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, was attended by Modi too. 

The news report had said, “Though the American Court did not name the Indian minister involved in taking bribe, the time of this scam and department under which it did occur make Himanta Biswa Sarma the prime suspect in this entire scandal, the BJP charged.”

Quoting an unnamed Assam BJP leader, the report also added, “The charges today have literally put an end to the efforts of BJP to woo Himanta Biswa Sarma, underscoring the need to split the Congress ahead of the (2016) Assembly polls.” Reporters from Assam in New Delhi were briefed about the BJP Parliamentary Board meeting by Sonowal and Kiren Rijiju – also a junior minister then from the Northeast. However, then BJP Assam president Siddhartha Bhattacharjee, who later became the key person to bring Sarma to the party, was also present.

Soon after Sarma joined BJP, then BJP president Amit Shah, refused to give him a clean chit in the scam. Responding to a media query at a press conference in Guwahati, Shah had said, “”I said all charges of corruption will be probed. Without probe how can I give a clean chit? Everyone will be probed.”

Shah, now the Union minister for home, is the person who now has to give the go ahead to the CBI to procure all documents that the US government is willing to share with the Indian government.

In the first BJP government in Assam, Sarma became the GDD minister once again. 

File image of Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma at a rally in Assam in December 2019. Photo: Twitter@himantabiswa

In 2015, following legal action against top LBI officials in the US, intellectuals, activists and opposition members in Assam, particularly from the BJP, began demanding a CBI probe into the scam, leading the then Congress government to announce a probe. Like Sarma, Gogoi also had initially ordered a probe to be led by the then additional chief secretary – a move seen by opposition members as a ‘face saver’ to protect his government and Sarma, then considered close to the chief minister. 

However, with the BJP upping the charge of corruption in the Congress regime in the run-up to the crucial 2016 assembly polls, the Gogoi government announced a probe into the allegations by the state CID, which reported to him. The CID registered a case in August 2015. By then, Sarma’s relations with Gogoi had also begun to sour, and rumours rife about him attempting a move to BJP. 

Court

During that uproar in mid-2015, RTI activist Bhaben Handique, along with two others, filed a PIL at the Gauhati high court seeking a CBI probe into the scam. In September 2017, a two-judge bench of the Gauhati high court comprising Chief Justice Ajit Singh and Justice Monojit Bhuyan, ordered the director of CBI, to “to take over the investigation of the case in question from the CID and bring the investigation to its logical conclusion in accordance with law.”

Also read: CBI Takes Over Louis Berger Corruption Case After Gauhati High Court Order

As per the HC order, the reason cited for handing over the case to the CBI was, “It was crystal clear that the investigating agency (CID) has not investigated the case in right earnest and has been conducting the same in a partisan manner.”

Stating that “the mystery of such allegations involving misappropriation of enormous public money must not haunt the people of the state (Assam) indefinitely”, the court’s order had noted that, “criminal investigation department (CID) is under the state government and since high ranking officials are involved in awarding the contract after taking huge amount of bribe, we are of the view that Criminal Investigation Department is not in a position to act independently to bring the investigation to a fair and logical conclusion in accordance with law.”

It further said, “In this background, we are of the view that the investigation of the case should not be conducted by any investigating agency of the state government and there is a need for an investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation.”  

Sarma government’s recent announcement to institute a probe into the allegations by a state government official may then be construed in violation of that high court observation. 

While Gogoi welcomed the high court’s decision in a tweet in 2017, Sarma had retorted that it was him who had signed on the contract.

CBI

In October 2017, a month after the HC order, the CBI filed a 40-page FIR in New Delhi against unnamed officials of Guwahati Metropolitan Development Authority under the GDD, the firm LBI, and unknown private or public people.

In a statement to Hindustan Times then, the consultancy firm had stated that it would “fully cooperate with the Indian authorities in their investigations.” 

A week after CBI filed the FIR in New Delhi, a team from the central agency visited Guwahati to submit a copy to the HC and the petitioners. Speaking to The Wire then, one of the petitioners, Handique, had said, “Handing over the case to the CBI was our primary plea to the high court. So obviously, I am happy to receive a copy of the FIR from the CBI team and hope that the probe agency brings to light the guilty in this high profile case where public money had been misused.”

Since the HC had made the state CID a party to the CBI investigation, the probe by the CID continued and it was required to brief the court every now and then on the progress of its investigation. 

However, in April 2017, the then special superintendent of police at the CID, R. Rajamarthandan, who was the officer investigating the sensitive case, was suspended by Assam Police on the charge of divulging “classified information” through an RTI reply in the case of a sensational attack on an All Assam Students Union office at Silapathar by pro-Citizenship Amendment Act supporters. 

Also read: Assam IPS Officer Investigating Louis Berger Bribery Case Arrested

Rajamarthandan was ousted from the case at a crucial juncture. As per his affidavit to the HC in January 2017 as the officer in charge of the bribery case, the US authorities, through a letter dated September 16, 2016, to the Modi government, had expressed interest in divulging the details of the alleged bribery by the LBI through a video conference. Though the Gauhati high court had given the CID four weeks’ time to revert after attending the video conference, on February 12, 2017, the state-government-run department told the court in a verbal affidavit that the video conference was going to be delayed. It led the court to extend the time.

Soon, Rajamarthandan was suspended from his job and subsequently removed from the investigation.

Since then, there has not been much movement in the case, which was once the major plank for the BJP to highlight corruption in the Congress regime in Assam and elsewhere.   

Speaking to The Wire about the appointment of the ‘enquiry officer’ by the BJP government to probe the allegations, Handique, now associated with the opposition party Raijor Dal, said, “This move by the Sarma government is a mere eyewash and an example of a Hitler-like attitude of the present government. Importantly, the state government is acting in violation of the High Court order.” He said, “The chief minister must not use officers who report to him to get a clean chit in that sensational case and allow the CBI to conduct the court monitored probe.”    

Leader of opposition at the state assembly and Congress MLA Debabrat Saikia told The Wire, “Though Prime Minister Modi publicly said in 2014 in Guwahati that all corrupt Congressmen in Assam would be enquired into and sent to jail, nothing much has happened till date. No progress is noted in the CBI probe into the Louis Berger case either. The Assam CID which was to contact the US authorities to seek details has also made no progress. The central government should contact the US Justice Department immediately for the information about the bribery and proceed to prosecute the Indian officials and whoever else was involved in the scam as it concerns public money. Justice delayed is justice denied.”  

The Wire has mailed the enquiry officer Borthakur seeking a response on what exactly would be the focus of his seven-day enquiry, and whether the Sarma government’s move is in violation of the Gauhati high court order. If there is any response from the Assam government to the queries, it will be added here.

Ground Report: Goa Wants Change, But Isn’t Sure Who to Vote For

Rising unemployment and widespread allegations of corruption against the BJP government in the state have made calls for anti-incumbency louder. However, no clear opposition to replace the ruling party is currently in sight.

Panjim: Politics in Goa is currently in a state of unprecedented flux. Every day, leaders and MLAs from the tiny state on India’s west coast are changing political allegiances, putting Goans in a deep dilemma as to who to cast their vote for just two months before the one of the most touted assembly elections of 2022.

In the last three months, at least nine MLAs of the 40-member assembly have changed their political affiliations. Besides, local political leaders and former MLAs are switching parties on a daily basis.

Of the nine MLAs who have switched sides, three joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), two joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC), one joined the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and one joined the Congress, in addition to an independent MLA also extending support to the Congress. Apart from them, Milind Naik, senior minister and BJP MLA from Mormugao, resigned after Congress leaders accused him of sexual exploitation.

In order to understand the prevailing mood and political dynamics, The Wire spent the last ten days visiting various constituencies across the state.

Anti-incumbency against BJP

A deep anger against the ruling dispensation can be observed in Goa, cutting across religion and caste demographics. Growing unemployment, rising prices of essential commodities and rampant corruption over the government’s ten years in power are some of the primary factors driving the anti-incumbency.

When asked what will happen in the upcoming election, one Mahesh Naik, who runs a small tea stall in Margao’s Gogol area said, “God knows what will happen but one thing is certain; the BJP is not winning.”

Bypassing the 2017 mandate, the BJP formed the government that year by allying with the regional parties like the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). Former chief minister and BJP veteran Manohar Parrikar had brokered the deal and kept the party united, despite the cracks in the foundation within.

However, after Parrikar’s death in 2019, the BJP kept itself in power by engineering defections, as evinced by the presence of seven defectors in its current 12-member cabinet.

For the first time in 27 years, the BJP will not have Parrikar at the helm for the Goa election. Political observers have opined that the saffron party is in disarray as factionalism has grown deep in light of the RSS’s excessive control.

Also read: Is There a Conflict of Interest in a Prominent Goa Media House’s Close Links to BJP?

Speaking to The Wire, former state election commissioner and political commentator Prabhakar Timble said, “No doubt that there is massive anger against the BJP on ground, but it is to be seen how opposition parties capitalise on it. The people of Goa are not liking the fact that politicians are changing parties like they change their clothes. Goans are fed up with this politics and want to teach these politicians a lesson.”

Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant, state BJP chief Sadanand Tanavade inducting Saligao MLA Jayesh Salgaonkar. Photo: BJP4Goa.

“The congress is planning to bring in fresh faces this time; they don’t have old faces anyway.” Timble continued, “Though the Congress has to be the natural alternative, – and it definitely is – the response of the party and leadership is perceived to be slow. But the BJP is facing serious internal issues as the original kariyakartas are revolting in many of their strongholds. MLAs are deserting the party; some are accusing their own Minister of a scam.”

Siddesh Rane, a local businessman and a resident of Panjim said, “Since I started voting, I only voted for BJP because Parrikar was running it. After his death, Delhi is running the Goa government; they are looting our state, destroying natural reserves. Goans died due to lack of oxygen but no one was punished. First, the government said, inquiries of deaths will demoralise frontline workers. Later, the health minister said, no one died of oxygen shortage. Is this the way you run a government? Whatever it is, we are voting for change this time.”

Too many, too small

In the last assembly election, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) secured around 6% of the vote share. This time, the party has jumped into the fray with more resources and a plan of action. However, in the last five years, the party has failed to nurture a leader who can lead the party in the state. The party still doesn’t have a leader who is well-known across Goa. The party’s state convener Rahul Mhambre is not popular beyond his hometown of Mapusa and similarly, new inductee Amit Palekar is mostly known as an advocate, not a politician.

The AAP’s Goa campaign is hinged on three primary factors: national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejeriwal’s image; inducting popular leaders from other parties; and promising various social-welfare schemes. To this end, the party already inducted leaders like Dayanand Narvekar, Mahadev Naik, Alina Saldanha, Pratima Coutinho and former BJP leader Ganpat Gaonkar.

Aam Aadmi Party campaign cutout with Arvind Kejriwal’s face. Photo: Himadri Ghosh.

Kejriwal’s promise of free pilgrimages to various religious centres didn’t resonate with the people of Goa and even the AAP’s other promises such as free electricity, increased financial assistance for women and aid for the unemployed youth saw only tepid response from locals.

Clenton D’Souza, a resident of Old Goa said, “The AAP’s free tourism promise is hilarious. Goans are capable of going on tours by their own means. They should tell us about their vision on the environment, mining, and tourism. There is no clarity on how they intend to tackle unemployment. If the AAP is suggesting a change in Goa’s politics, why are they inducting tainted leaders like Dayanand Narvekar and Mahadev Naik?”

“The AAP has successfully created a niche for itself in Goa’s political space and has regularly taken up issues of political consequence. However, the party has failed to build a mass base outside of certain pockets and lacks a leader with popularity across the state. While the party can be expected to increase its vote share, it has made little headway as it has failed to explain its raison d’etre beyond being a party that is against corruption and freebies, a pitch that has gained little traction,” said a Panjim-based journalist.

Also read: As AAP Eyes ‘National Party’ Status With 2022 Assembly Polls, A Look at Where It Stands Now

The TMC is the party with maximum visibility in the state. Most of the hoardings and virtually every lamp post in Goa have West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s face plastered on them. The party, on the other hand, is aggressively engineering defections.

Mamata Banerjee’s face plastered all across Goa airport highway. Photo: Himadri Ghosh.

The latest was prominent Congress leader and MLA from Curtorim, Aleixo Reginaldo. Before this, sole NCP MLA Churchill Alemao, along with his daughter Valanka, also joined the TMC. Other leaders like Raju Cabral, Salim Volvoikar and Kiran Kandolkar joined the party a few months prior.

TMC’s public meeting in Benaulim to induct MLA Churchill Alemao and his daughter Valanka Alemao. Photo: Himadri Ghosh.

The TMC’s activity is solely run by political strategist Prashant Kishor-led consultancy firm, the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC). From negotiating with leaders to join the TMC to designing the campaign and even assisting probable candidates in daily campaigning and stitching alliances with other parties, everything is done by the I-PAC.

The TMC recent decision to join hands with Goa’s oldest party, the MGP, could prove to be a double-edged sword, given that MGP president Deepak Dhavalikar and MLA Sudin Dhavalikar have publicly endorsed right-wing organisations like the Sanatan Sanstha which has even been named on the chargesheet for the Gauri Lankesh murder case.

Moreover, in last ten days, two MGP candidates, Pravin Arlekar and Premendra Shet from the party’s strongholds of the Pernem and Mayem constituencies have resigned citing the “TMC-MGP alliance.” While Shet has already joined BJP, Arlekar is in advanced talks with the saffron party.

Political observers believe both the TMC and the AAP can split anti-BJP votes in a few pockets but overall, both will remain only marginal players.

“Of late, the AAP has increased its traction due to the entry of the TMC. As Congress leaders got poached, the acrimony has not gone down well, making the AAP a more acceptable opposition,” Goan advocate and political analyst Cleofato Coutinho told The Wire. “The TMC has no traction. They are solely dependent on the face and image of poached leaders, loaded with aggressive publicity campaigns. The MGP had a good chance of staying at 4-5 seats but the chemistry between the two cannot work. The alliance will pull down the MGP,” Coutinho continued.

Also read: How Prashant Kishor’s ‘Project Goa’ for TMC Is Failing

Broken Congress the default beneficiary?

While the Congress party may appear fractured in many other states, this is nothing compared to its situation in Goa. The party, which emerged as the single largest party in the 2017 assembly election by bagging 17 seats, now has only two MLAs remaining in the assembly: veteran leader and the longest-serving chief minister of Goa Pratapsingh Rane and fellow former chief minister Digambar Kamat, the latter being the party’s most probable face for the upcoming election.

An eye check-up camp organised by probable Congress candidate Amit Patkar in the Curchorem constituency. Photo: Himadri Ghosh.

The Congress is the least visible party in the state and what’s more, it failed to capitalise on the issues which actually rocked the state in the past month.

BJP MLA from Panjim Atanasio “Babush” Monserrate, who switched over to BJP in 2019, recently alleged that Public Works Department (PWD) minister Deepak Pauskar had sold engineering jobs for money. “I have proof that people have paid the minister between Rs 25-30 lakh for each engineer post and that the minister sold the posts to the highest bidder. It is a Rs 70 crore scam,” Monserrate told the media. But the Congress failed to capitalise on this infighting.

Additionally, senior state Congress leaders accused minister Milind Naik of sexual exploitation and submitted evidence of the same via a formal complaint to the police. Naik was forced to resign when this came to light but again, the Congress failed to make the most of the scandal.

Speaking to The Wire, the Congress’s South Goa district president, Joe Dias said, “The BJP and other political parties like the AAP and TMC are trying their best to break into Congress holds and they have been successful to an extent. But the Congress is the only party which has presence across all 40 constituencies in Goa. The Congress party’s strength lies with the people, not with the leaders. Leaders may have left but voters stand strong with the party.”

While many have written the Congress off in Goa, The Wire found that minority voters (both Muslims and Christians) in many constituencies are consolidating in favour of the party as anger against party-hoppers reach new heights.

In the Salcette, Mormugao, Tiswadi, Quepem and Bardez talukas, there are around 17 seats where the minority electorate is more than 40% and where they significantly determine electoral outcomes. What’s more, there are another seven seats in the state where minorities account for more than 25% of the votes. Whether this is enough to propel the Congress to victory, however, remains to be seen

As Corruption Probe in Assam Slows, Questions Are Raised About Official Intentions

The man the BJP once described as a ‘key suspect’ in the Louis Berger case is now a senior minister in its own government.

The man the BJP once described as a ‘key suspect’ in the Louis Berger case is now a senior minister in its own government.

Senior Assam minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma was once in the Congress, and was accused of playing a key role in the Louis Berger corruption scandal in the state. Credit: PTI

New Delhi: Two years ago, on July 21, 2015, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) released a booklet at a meeting of party MPs in New Delhi with the title ‘Water Supply Scam 2010 in Goa and Guwahati’.

The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The BJP booklet alleged that Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was the minister in charge of the Guwahati Development Department (GDD) in what was then the Congress government in Assam, was a “key suspect” in the scam related to a Guwahati water supply project which involved services hired from the American multinational construction management company, Louis Berger International Inc.

The provocation for the BJP booklet was a case filed against the company on July 7, 2015 by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Executives from the New Jersey-based company told a US court that they and their consortium partners had – between 1998 and 2010 – paid bribes worth $976,630 to unnamed “officials” in the Assam and Goa governments to corner water management consultancy projects.

Among similar payments made to unnamed “officials” in Indonesia and Kuwait, the amount mentioned by the company as bribes paid in India was the highest. As per US court documents, Louis Berger had paid $210,000 in Indonesia and $71,000 in Kuwait. Though it bribed “officials” in Vietnam too, the total payments involved were not mentioned.

The US DoJ reportedly said Louis Berger would pay $17.1 million as criminal penalty to resolve charges of bribes given to win government contracts in India and the other three countries.

The BJP booklet “quoted generously” from the 11-page chargesheet filed by US prosecutors against the company, claiming that “Louis Berger maintained a detailed diary and account of bribery (made) to Indian officials”. Though the chargesheet mentioned “officials”representing the state governments, noted that an agent of a company had “paid a minister” and didn’t name any individual in particular, the BJP took a public stand against Sarma as he was then the man in charge of theAssam project.

Guwahati Municipal Corporation Development Authority head Dhiren Barua was quoted in the media as saying the authority “was not involved” in the selection of companies and this was done by GDD.” Though Sarma denied the BJP’s charges, Barua said that when Louis Berger was selected as a consultant, “Himanta Biswa Sarma was the GDD minister and Ashish Kumar Bhutani was the GDD secretary. The selection took place between 2008-2009.”

Speaking to reporters after attending the BJP MPs meet in New Delhi in 2015, Sarbananda Sonowal, who then the Union sports and youth affairs minister, wondered why Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi was “silent on the issue” while Goa chief minister and BJP leader Laxminath Parsekar had already demanded a CBI inquiry into the Goa part of the “scam”.

Though by then, the rumour that Sarma had fallen out with Gogoi in a power struggle and had reached out to the BJP was gaining wind, Siddharta Bhattacharyya, who was BJP state president at the time, reportedly said on the same day in New Delhi that his party’s charges against Sarma in the booklet had “literally put an end” to that speculation.

As Sarma’s star rose, probe in Louis Berger case waned

Of course, Sarma joined the BJP barely a month after Bhattacharyya made that claim – on August 29, 2015. Sonowal is chief minister of Assam and Sarma is now a senior minister with multiple portfolios in the state government, including the GDD portfolio where the alleged scam took place. Sarma is widely believed to be “number two” in the state hierarchy. He has also become a key strategist for the BJP as it seeks to politically conquer the entire northeast.

When the BJP won the May 2016 Assam  assembly polls, people in the state assumed the Louis Berger case would be thoroughly probed. Since this was the most high-profile, multi-crore allegation of corruption against the erstwhile Congress government and the BJP had been demanding a CBI probe into it, quick results were expected. Instead, the opposite has happened.

Over the last few months, however, the Assam CID, which is probing the case, has failed thrice to update the Gauhati high court which is overseeing the investigation as part of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a social activist, Bhaben Handique.

For inexplicable reasons, a simple video conference that the investigating agency wishes to conduct with the US Department of Justice has been held up for months on end. And approval from the state home department for investigators to pay a visit to Washington DC to collect evidentiary documents on the case, as per the US government’s invitation, has also been hanging fire.

Also, even though on May 9, the prime minister’s office (PMO) forwarded a letter written by petitioner Handique to Modi seeking his “urgent intervention” in the case, action is yet to be taken by the state government to speed up the investigation.

The contrast with Goa

Going back to 2015, on August 7 – just a few days after the BJP released its booklet in New Delhi – the Modi government ordered an inquiry by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into the Goa leg of the alleged scam. The ED filed a case under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

On July 21, coinciding with the BJP’s release of the booklet related to the alleged scam, the Goa crime branch registered an FIR against unknown ministers in the former Congress government and company officials, thus commencing a separate probe.

Former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat Photo PTI

Former Goa chief minister Digambar Kamat, now being probed by the Enforcement Directorate. Credit: PTI

The ED, together with Goa crime branch, carried out raids on August 15, 2015 at the residences and offices of former Goa chief minister and Congress leader Digambar Kamat, besides his “close friends and business associates”.

Though Guwahati-based media reports then said the ED had also begun looking at the Assam part of the corruption case, nothing has been heard about it from the ED’s Guwahati office. A reliable source in the Guwahati office of the ED recently told The Wire, “As far as I know, ED never pursued the Guwahati part of the case.”

The erstwhile Congress-led Gogoi government, smarting under the BJP’s accusation of corruption prior to the assembly polls, set up a high level inquiry into the allegations under then additional chief secretary Subhash Das, directing him to submit the report soon.

Meanwhile, Handique filed a PIL in the state High Court basing his plea on the statements made by Louis Berger officials in the US court, and seeking a directive to order an investigation into the matter by an independent agency, such as the CBI – something that the BJP, prior to the state assembly polls, sought too.

After Das’s inquiry report was submitted, the state CID registered a case on August 17, 2015 and began probing the allegations.

Since then, N. Rajamarthandan, special superintendent of police (SSP) CID and the main investigating officer for the case, had been periodically presenting himself at the Gauhati high court to update it about the progress of the case.

On April 7, 2017, Rajamarthandan was suspended and thereafter arrested by the state police on the charge of disclosing “classified information” through an RTI reply related to another sensitive probe he was conducting.

Before he was released on ‘default bail’ on June 13 because the Assam Police failed to frame a chargesheet against him within the stipulated period of 60 days, the Sonowal government transferred the case to Rajamarthdan’s junior officer, CID SP Indrani Baruah.

State government drags its feet

Though the Goa leg of the Louis Berger allegations led to prompt action even without the US authorities cooperating with the ED,  scant progress has been seen in the Assam part of the allegations. This, even after the US Department of Justice responded positively to the letter rogatory (LR) sent by the court of the CJM, Kamrup (Metropolitan), seeking its legal assistance in the collection and transfer of evidence.

The CJM issued the LR on May 4, 2016, to which the US DoJ responded on September 26, 2016 and also on October 10, 2016. In the letters, the US authorities agreed to share evidence pertaining to the case and invited the state CID’s investigators to its headquarters in Washington. The US officials also proposed a preliminary discussion over video conferencing with the CID before visiting the US. The state CID submitted copies of those letters to the HC in December last year, informing the court that the US justice department had agreed to cooperate in the investigations.

However, since then, the CID failed to update the high court three times on any progress in the matter.

Meanwhile, as per top sources in Assam Police, the Ministry of Home Affairs (US-legal desk) wrote two “terse” letters to the state CID in February and March expressing unhappiness about the delay in the case. The first letter, the sources said, referred to the delay of three months in sending the proposal to the state home department for the US visit.

The second letter pointed out “a delay by the CID in the request to have the tele-conference by 10-15 days.”

During the time the Assam CID was accused of delay by the MHA through those letters, the ED’s probe in Goa led to Kamat’s assets worth Rs 1.95 crore being attached on March 30.

The ED also attached eight apartments owned by former Congress minister-turned-NCP MLA Churchill Alemao as part of its probe into the case. On April 2, the ED conducted raids on 14 shell companies in Kolkata allegedly involved in the Louis Berger case.

Significantly, after taking over the case, Indrani Baruah, the new investigating officer, updated the government lawyer R.K. Dev Choudhury in a May 3, 2017 affidavit, stating that the CID, on January 16, 2017 (i.e. during Rajamarthandan’s tenure as investigating officer) had sought approval from the state home and political department  to visit the US to collect evidence from the US DoJ.  The letter was addressed to the commissioner and secretary of the department, memo no CID-IV/C.41/2015.

Baruah said, “A request letter has also been sent to Dipak Goswami, director of technical division, NIC state centre, Guwahati, on January 9, 2017 requesting to arrange to host and facilitate VTC (video tele-conference) link for CID officials with the prosecutors of Department of Justice USA.”

Her submission said that a day later, the CID was asked by the NIC to procure the internet protocol address of the video conferencing equipment from where it would be doing the conference. The US officials provided the IP address on January 25.

Baruah’s affidavit said that on March 2, an email was received from the CBI’s International Police Cooperation Cell (IPPC), New Delhi, informing the CID that it had conveyed the contact details of Assam Police to the US justice department on February 22.

However, without furnishing any reason, her affidavit noted that the IPPC had also said, “It will take some time to receive [a] response from the US department”, and added: “Meanwhile, the CID directly contacted the US Department of Justice through an email on March 23, 2017” (during Rajamarthandan’s tenure as investigating officer) and requested it to provide the required information “at the earliest”.

Though her affidavit is dated May 3, intriguingly, it says, “A reminder was also sent to the US on May 22, 2017.” What remains unanswered here, apart from the anomaly in the date mentioned, is why the US authorities would not respond to the CID’s emails after inviting a team from the state investigating agency to share evidence. Also, why had the CID changed its January 6 stance, when it informed the court through another affidavit (by then CID SSP Rajamarthandan) that the US Department of Justice has agreed to cooperate with investigations and engage in video conferencing? Rajamarthandan told the HC then that the CID “is in touch with CBI’s IPCC” to facilitate the video conference with the US authorities.

A news report quoting sources in the state government published in the Assam Tribune daily on April 29 also confirmed that the state government was sending a team to the US.

“However, the date for sending the team is yet to be finalised as necessary formalities have to be completed before that,” the report said.

‘Sarma is being protected’

Akhil Gogoi. Credit: PTI

Krishan Mukti Sangram Samiti leader Akhil Gogoi. Credit: PTI

Talking about the proposed visit, top sources in the department told The Wire, “Besides the investigating officer Rajamarthandan and CID inspector general Surendra Kumar, a deputy superintendent of police was to travel to the US to procure the evidence and were awaiting approval from the home department when Rajamarthandan was suspended and thereafter arrested.”

On May 26, following accusations by Krishan Mukti Sangram Samiti leader Akhil Gogoi at a press meet in Guwahati that the BJP-led government is “safeguarding its cabinet minister Himanta Biswa Sarma by delaying investigation into the Louis Berger case,” and appointing Indrani Baruah as the investigating officer whom he claimed “is close to Himanta as per our information”, the Sonowal government announced the appointment of a new investigating officer – Sonitpur SP P. P. Singh.

However, when contacted on July 13 for an update on the case, Singh told The Wire, “I am still the SP, Sonitpur, I have not taken charge of the case.” He said he didn’t know when he would take over the case.

The Wire tried to contact commissioner and secretary, home and political department, to enquire into the status of the CID’s proposal to visit the US to collect evidence in the case (as mentioned in the May 3, 2017 affidavit) but failed to make any headway.

Meanwhile, the status of the petitioner’s letter to PM Modi seeking his “urgent intervention” in the case – which was forwarded by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on May 6 to the state home department – is yet to be known.

Handique told The Wire, “After getting to know that the PMO has forwarded the letter to the chief minister’s grievance cell attached to the home and political department on May 6 and it was received by the concerned person on May 9, I filed an RTI on May 11 to know its status. Over a month has passed and I am yet to get a reply.”

As per the PMO website, the letter has been forwarded to D.J. Borkakoti at the home and political department. Borkakoti could not be reached.

“I wrote to PM Modi only because he talks about zero tolerance to corruption. The Louis Berger case is the most high-profile case of corruption in the state. The public has a right to know what happened. However, the efficiency and impartiality of the CID, which is investigating the case, has come under a serious cloud recently. The state government has ordered an inquiry into those allegations made by a contractor against the department. Following this, I also wrote a letter to the chief minister, drawing his attention to the negligence of the CID in the Louis Berger case too,” Handique said.

He added, “Also, since the US government is keen to give us evidence, it is now a matter of prestige of the Indian government to procure it. It is to protect the name and fame of the country before the international agencies. After all, we don’t want to be seen by the world as a country that allows high-level corruption.”

In April, during an interview to The Wire, Sonowal, who holds the home portfolio, said the biggest challenge of his government is corruption “not just at the top level but down to the bottom”. Asked about the progress of the Louis Berger case, the chief minister categorically said, “We will look into it too.”

Three months later, it is evident that there is no sense of urgency about the case.

Congress Emerges Single Largest Party While AAP Draws a Blank in Goa

Meanwhile, the BJP’s incumbent chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and five of its ministers lost their seats.

Meanwhile, the BJP’s incumbent chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar and five of its ministers lost their seats.

Congress supporters celebrate in Goa. Credit: PTI

Congress supporters celebrate in Goa. Credit: PTI

Panaji: Saffron may have won in Uttar Pradesh, but it failed to significantly retain power at India’s popular tourist destination. The Congress – which had suffered its worst defeat in decades in the last election – emerged the single largest party in Goa, taking 18 seats (including an independent) in a house of 40. The BJP, which had a simple majority of 21 in 2012, managed just 13 seats and has the support on one independent.

Meanwhile, AAP, which had made a strong bid for a political breakthrough in Goa by contesting 39 of the 40 seats – more than any other party – drew a blank.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary Digvijaya Singh said the party would stake the claim to form the government early tomorrow after a meeting of its core committee with the elected MLAs. The BJP had lost the moral right to try to make a bid for power, Singh said, reacting to the rumour that the saffron party was possibly trying to win over the two local parties to its side. But the Congress’s claim, as well as the political stability of this state, now hinges largely on the two regional parties – Goa Forward (GF) and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) – which have won three seats each. The NCP claimed one seat and is expected to throw its lot in with the Congress.

At a press conference after the BJP’s poor showing, outgoing chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar, who was soundly defeated, said he feared the fractured mandate would bring instability and “affect development” in Goa in the next five years. This statement signals that the BJP could still try and make a bid for power, trying to cobble up the numbers. Parsekar also took consolation from the fact that the BJP had managed a higher share of the vote (32.9%) than the Congress (27.9%).

So far, neither the GF nor the MGP have revealed their hand – though the MGP did announce before the counting that in the event of a hung assembly, they would most likely prefer to align with the BJP. The MGP, which broke off its alliance with the BJP before this poll, has been in government with the Congress in the past as well. GF, a breakaway from the Congress, is most likely to tilt to the side that makes it the best offer given its recent fallout with some Congress leaders like Goa PCC president Luizinho Faleiro. GF MLA Vijai Sardessai is known to drive a hard bargain and sees himself as chief minister material.

The strongest message from the electorate appeared to have been directed at a number of the BJP’s stalwarts – many of them staunch RSS men like Parsekar and speaker Rajendra Arlekar who were resoundingly defeated. Four other ministers also bit the dust. For a party that just a few elections ago had a hard time convincing minorities to contest on the Lotus symbol, the BJP was in fact well served by its Catholic faces. Seven of the 13 BJP MLAs who won are Catholics. One of them, Mauvin Godinho, crossed sides from the Congress just a few weeks before the election and finds himself on the losing side once again.

Though Arvind Kejriwal had drawn a lot of media attention after his well-attended public rally in Panaji in May last year, AAP seemed to have been taken in by its own spin and divorced from ground realities. In most constituencie,  the party didn’t even touch four digit figures. But AAP did damage the Congress to some extent – Congress’s vote share slumped to 27.9% to the BJP’s 32.9%. The AAP debuted with 6.1% of the vote.

And if one thought politicians have a shelf life, those elected on the Congress side proved otherwise. The party fielded and brought back to power a number of ‘senior’ leaders, among them former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane (who will touch a half century in the Goa house sometime later this term), Faleiro (who returns to state politics from his AICC venture), former chief ministers Ravi Naik and Digambar Kamat, and another old hand Isidore Fernandes, not to mention Churchill Alemao of the NCP. As Singh said, with anti-incumbency trailing the BJP, what seemed paramount in the voters’ mind in Goa was a change of government – particularly after the numerous U-turns by the BJP in the last term.

With Several Players in the Electoral Fray, Goa is Proving Difficult to Call

The BJP is campaigning fervently to hold on to Goa after its break with Sudin Dhavlikar and the MGP, while a fractured Congress, AAP and independents contest over small electorates.

The BJP is campaigning fervently to hold on to Goa after its break with Sudin Dhavlikar and the MGP, while a fractured Congress, AAP and independents contest over small electorates.

A BJP rally in Panaji on January 28. Credit: Twitter

A BJP rally in Panaji on January 28. Credit: Twitter

Panaji: Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) leader Ramkrishna Dhavlikar – also known as Sudin Dhavlikar – has been called a politician for all seasons for his propensity to lean on the side closest to the winning post and and his ability to corner plum portfolios. For most of the 18 years that he has been an MLA, Sudin has managed to latch on to a government – Congress or BJP – even though his party had only a smattering of seats. In 2002 and 2007, the MGP managed just two seats and in 2012 it picked up three. With their alliance off the rails in this election, the BJP is calling its former partner ‘Maximum Grab Party’.

The vitriol is perhaps deserved, because the MGP has signalled that they would be open for business, provided Sudin becomes chief minister. He told the Times of India in an interview recently: “You will be surprised. We are doing very well. It is good we are not in an alliance with BJP. They are trailing. We would have faced the same music from the people,” adding, “If anyone wants us, they should support us.”

Not many would have heard of the MGP outside Goa. The party came into existence after Goa’s 1961 liberation from Portuguese rule. It came to power in 1963 riding on the popularity of the bahujan samaj leader Dayanand Bandodkar and ruled for 16 years, after which it was dislodged by the Congress. But the party, formed with the express intent to merge Goa into Maharashtra, was stopped in its tracks by India’s only referendum, the Goa Opinion Poll of 1967, which voted decisively against the merger.

The MGP has since struggled with the ‘Maharashtrawadi’ association, which was making it politically irrelevant. It even suggested that journalists use only the party’s acronym, rather than the full form.

In an election that’s proving difficult to call, the role of lesser players will assume significance after March 11 – if neither the BJP nor Congress manages a majority. The MGP currently seems positioned to do better than it did in the past three elections, which could propel it to dictate terms if it came to power sharing. It is contesting 33 of the 40 seats in a saffron alliance with the Goa Suraksha Manch and the Shiv Sena. This tie-up of hardliners is making the BJP seem less ‘saffron’ than its adversaries.

One of the big ironies of the ‘resurgence’ of the MGP, which espouses the cause of the bahujan samaj in Goa, is that it is run and entirely controlled by the upper caste Dhavlikar brothers – the younger of the Dhavlikars, Deepak, is contesting for a third term from Priol – with strong ties to the Sanatan Sanstha.

Sudin Dhavlikar at an event. Credit: PTI/Files

Sudin Dhavlikar of the MGP at an event. Credit: PTI/Files

The Dhavlikars have never denied their links to the fringe right-wing organisation whose members are being investigated for the killings of leftist leader Govind Pansare and scholar M.M. Kalburgi. They’ve even defended their right as a “priestly family to help our Hindu dharma” by supporting the Sanatan. The wives of both the MGP politicians are ‘sadaks’ in the organisation which is headquartered in Ramnathi, Ponda.

The fracture between the BJP and MGP has brought a certain edge to the election and the BJP is using everything in its arsenal to take down its ‘saffron’ opponents. In Priol, it has thrown its weight behind an independent, Govind Gaude, contesting against Deepak. It has compelled Sudin to spend a lot of time campaigning here to save his brother’s seat. The older Dhavlikar, who has held lucrative portfolios in PWD and transport, and is known to look after his voters – he gave the Sanatan government advertisements – is standing for a fifth term from Marcaim.

Congress battles itself

Though the newcomer AAP promises change for its supporters – many of them young Goans – political heavyweights still lumber across the election landscape, some of them quite visibly struggling to stay relevant. The Congress which has brought in 60% of the new faces has four former chief ministers in the contest – Luizinho Faleiro, Pratapsingh Rane, Ravi Naik and Digambar Kamat. Faleiro, Goa Pradesh Congress Committee chief, was sent back to revive a squabbling, demoralised side. Though he has managed to recoup the organisation to some extent, his campaign to return to state politics is not proving easy.

In Navelim, South Goa, where he is standing, the contours and demographics have altered dramatically in the 10 years he’s been away. Jogging shoes on, Faleiro trudges the dust. Every vote counts. His campaign manager bitterly complains that there are less than 24,000 voters here and seven candidates – some of them ‘sponsored’ by those inside the Congress. The BJP is supporting the strongest competition to Faleiro, an independent Avertano Furtado, and is said to have propped up the virtually defunct Goa Vikas Party to further fragment the ‘Catholic’ vote in these parts.

The election has not been fought yet, but some Congress leaders are already surveying the power stakes post the results, its members say. Kamat who ran the government in the worst years of illegal mining, is contesting the Margao seat for a seventh term has been a wily player. He survived the anti-Congress wave in 2012 despite the campaign against his role in the mining scandal.

But the constituency that’s attracting the most attention is Panaji, where the BJP run is being challenged by the rank outsider and maverick politician Babush Monserrate. This is a contest not so much between the BJP and the Congress, which is playing it by proxy through Monserrate (contesting from the United Goans Party), as it is a challenge for defence minister Manohar Parrikar to prove he still carries weight. Parrikar had won the Panaji seat five times since 1994. His move to the Centre saw his protegé, Sidharth Kuncalienkar, take the seat in the 2015 by-election. But a year later, a panel floated by Monserrate turned the tables on the BJP in the city corporation polls.

Babush Monserrate. Credit: Twitter

Babush Monserrate. Credit: Twitter

This is the first time Monserrate is contesting this seat. In the market, the chaiwallas are rooting for the underdog, but there are also 3,000 Saraswat (Brahmin) votes in contention that have usually stood by the BJP.

The extent by which the Goa election has turned into a prestige issue for Parrikar is evident from his relentless campaigning here – turning up at the smallest corner meetings in market places with his security detail in tow. This correspondent caught one such meeting at 9 pm at the Taleigao market on Sunday. A few rows of chairs were lined up on the narrow streets facing the podium from which the defence minister addressed the crowd even as traffic barely wended through. The BJP supporters were ecstatic. Never before have our meetings here drawn so many people, one of them said. But Parrikar had never before addressed a meeting in this constituency, I pointed out. This is how intense the challenge to hold on to Goa has become for the BJP.