goa elections 2022

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

Amit Shah and Rajnath Singh have repeated PM Narendra Modi’s claim that Jawaharlal Nehru deliberately “delayed” military action to free Goa from Portuguese colonial rule along with India’s Independence.

Panaji: The last phase of the election in Goa has put a shaky Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on the defensive, with the ruling party and its phalanx of big faces trying to distract the voter with an orchestrated attack against Jawaharlal Nehru and his role in Goa’s Liberation of December 1961.

Playing up Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s spiel in parliament that Jawaharlal Nehru had deliberately “delayed” military action to free Goa from Portuguese colonial rule along with India’s Independence, Union home minister Amit Shah and defence minister Rajnath Singh – campaigning in Goa on February 9 – sang the same tune.

Had Nehru been a decisive prime minister, Goa would have been liberated in 1947, rather than 1961, Shah said, with Singh echoing the attack.

“In trying to demolish Nehru’s image, the BJP believes it will help them damage the Congress in this election,” says Konkani writer, former editor and lawyer Uday Bhembre.

With voter resentment against the BJP running high, the Congress campaign has moved apace, placing it as the principal challenger in this election, as the high-pitched disruptions of the Aam Aadmi Party and Trinamool Congress fade into the background.

Bhembre says the BJP’s attack on Nehru’s role in liberating Goa is a “deliberate attempt to distort history” and in keeping with the party’s political strategy to discredit him.

“Nehru was a perfect democrat, and his decision to hold back on military action has to be seen in the context of the political history of the time,” he says. Caught up in the spiral of problems in running the country post Independence, the Goa case would hardly have figured in the agenda of the new Congress government. “In any case, the decision to annexe Goa was not Nehru’s alone, but the cabinet’s,” says Bhembre.

With his hands tied by India’s commitment to the UN and the non-aligned movement to desist from using force in taking back Goa, the country’s first prime minister spent years exploring every diplomatic option to convince Portuguese dictator Antonio de Oliveira Salazar to give up Goa peacefully. The New York Times reported in July 1955 that Nehru had met with Pope Pius XII in Rome and brought up the “Goa question”.

Jawaharlal Nehru. Photo: Wikimedia Commons, public domain

Quoting from Pundalik Gaitonde’s book The Liberation of Goa: A Participant’s View of History, Bhembre says Nehru sent the Goan surgeon (Gaitonde) who had connections in London on various diplomatic missions abroad “to see that Salazar doesn’t force us to take military action”. Gaitonde, a critic of the colonial regime, had been arrested in Goa in 1954 and deported to Portugal. He was released in 1955, after which he became something of Nehru’s unofficial diplomat-at-large pushing for the cause of peacefully dismantling the colonial rule in Goa.

Calling out the BJP’s falsification of Goa’s resistance struggle is also personal for Bhembre. His father, Laxmikant Bhembre, was arrested by the Portuguese in 1946, sentenced to four years and deported to the notorious political prison in fort Peniche, Portugal (the jail is today the National Museum of Resistance and Freedom). Bhembre’s father spent 16 years in exile in Portugal before he was allowed to return to Goa after the Liberation.

Though the RSS played no role in the resistance to Portuguese rule, as Bhembre points out, in another attempt to reinvent the historical narrative, the BJP under the late Manohar Parrikar, felicitated scores of Sangh members for “participating” in the Goa freedom movement.

“The dynamics and politics of the liberation struggle of Goa had to consider the national and international geo-politics of that period. Today, historiography seems to be influenced by the colour of political ideology. Leaders are either humanised or demonised depending on which side of the political spectrum they belong,” says writer and professor of history Sushila Sawant Mendes.

Also Read: Hidden in Modi’s Attack on Congress Is an Admission of His Govt’s Failures During Pandemic

Rebellions and departures

It isn’t the Congress alone that’s pinching the BJP’s Achille’s heel in this election. The party’s been hit by a series of departures and rebellions that’s likely to overturn any hopes it has of making it anywhere close to the single largest party, leave alone a majority on its own.

The most prominent face to desert the saffron party is the former union defence minister Manohar Parrikar’s son, Utpal. Snubbed for a ticket by the BJP to contest in Panaji, the seat his father had won six times, Utpal Parrikar is contesting as an independent to take down the BJP’s official nominee, Babush Monserrate. He felt obliged to get into the contest to “fight the criminalisation of politics” in his father’s constituency, Parrikar junior said.

“I’m fighting the biggest battle of my life and putting my career on the line,” he told The Wire, more so because he’s had to “burn bridges with those at the highest level in the country”. The 42-year-old computer engineer was summoned to Delhi by Shah, who tried to get him to change his mind, but to no avail.

Utpal Parrikar’s defiance has been particularly embarrassing to the BJP not just because of the optics and media coverage he’s drawn, but also because it has spurred sympathy for his cause among Manohar Parrikar’s supporters across Goa. “This will cause the party to lose at least 500 votes in each constituency across Goa,” says one of his campaign managers. With a small voter base of roughly 30,000 each, 500 votes are significant in close contests.

Utpal Parrikar. Photo: Narayan Pissurlekar

Parrikar’s son is not the only BJP rebel in the race. The party’s former chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar is also contesting as an independent from Mandrem. Several others have moved to other parties.

One of the BJP’s biggest losses has been the crossover of its former minister Michael Lobo to the Congress. Lobo, who’s been baiting the saffron party for months, could influence the fortunes of the Congress in at least four seats around his constituency, Calangute, where he’s consolidated his political position over the last 10 years.

For the Congress, its former chief minister Pratapsingh Rane’s decision to pull out of this election – in deference to his son Vishvajit, who’s made himself at home in the BJP – is also a setback.

In 2017, the Congress had emerged the single-largest party with 17+1 (NCP) seats in the 40 member House. The BJP had slumped to 13 seats, down seven from its 2012 tally. But it managed to form the government cobbling a majority with the Goa Forward Party (GFP), the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and independent MLAs. GFP has a pre-poll alliance with the Congress in this election. The MGP has tied up with the TMC.

Goa: Manohar Parrikar’s Son Utpal Quits BJP, to Contest From Panaji as Independent

He said that he is ready to withdraw from the poll race if the saffron party fields a “good candidate” from the constituency.

New Delhi: Denied ticket from Panaji, Utpal Parrikar, former Goa chief minister Manohar Parrikar’s son, on Friday quit the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and decided to contest as an independent candidate.

The younger Parrikar will contest the February 14 assembly elections in the state from Panaji, his late father’s constituency. However, he added that he is ready to withdraw from the race if the saffron party fields a “good candidate” from the constituency.

The ruling BJP nominated sitting MLA Atanasio Monserrate from Panaji – which Manohar Parrikar had represented for over two decades. Monserrate is one of ten legislators who had joined the saffron party in July 2019 after quitting the Congress.

“I tried my best to convince my party during the last election (2019 bypoll after Manohar Parrikar’s death) and this election that I enjoy the support of all the workers who have been with this party for the last 30 years. They toiled with my father to build this party and now they are toiling with me. I also enjoy the support of the general population of Panaji. In spite of that I have not been able to get the candidature of Panaji constituency,” Utpal, 40, told the Indian Express after resigning from the BJP on Friday evening.

Parrikar said that the BJP as an organisation is “crumbling” in Goa. “When [BJP chief J.P. Nadda] came to Goa, there were five couples, who had sought party tickets [for the next month’s polls]. Had Manohar Parrikar been alive, not a single male politician would have dared to seek ticket for his wife,” he claimed.

“I was left with no other choice. I have resigned from the party and I would be contesting as an independent from Panaji,” he told the news agency.

He also said that resignation was a formality but the BJP will “always remain in my heart”.

Also read: Ground Report: Goa Wants Change, but Isn’t Sure Who to Vote For

“It is a difficult choice for me, I am doing it for the people of Goa. No one should be worried about my political future, people of Goa will do it,” he said.

The BJP had offered him “other options” (constituencies other than Panaji), Parrikar said.

“I am fighting for the values which I believe in. Let the people of Panaji decide. I cannot negotiate with my party,” he added.

Asked whether he would seek the support of other political parties, he said the only platform for him was the BJP.

Parrikar also claimed that denying a ticket to him is similar to the situation in 1994, when attempts were made to throw his father out of the party. “The one who has been witness to the history will understand what I am saying. It was the time when the BJP was trying to establish itself in areas where the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) was prominent,” he said.

“Those who have been with the party since then will know what I am saying. That time, Manohar Parrikar could not be thrown out because he enjoyed the support of the people,” he said, adding that “those people” (who were against his father) are still in the party holding “high positions”.

On Thursday, the BJP’s Goa in-charge Devendra Fadnavis had said while releasing the first list of candidates that the party offered some other seats to Utpal, but he was not willing to contest from any of them.

Earlier in the day, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut said his party, which had formed a tie-up with the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) for the Goa elections, would support Parrikar if he promised not to back the BJP after the elections.

On Thursday, Aam Aadmi Party leader and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal had slammed the BJP for adopting a “use and throw” policy regarding the Parrikar family and invited Utpal to join his party.

(With PTI inputs)

Goa Elections: With First List, TMC Plays ‘Revenge Politics’, Targets Congress, GFP

Among the 11 names hurriedly declared, TMC’s newly minted Rajya Sabha MP Luizinho Faleiro’s stands out, who is pitched to contest against GFP leader Vijai Sardesai.

Panaji: The Trinamool Congress (TMC), a latecomer to the electoral contest in Goa, released its first list of candidates on January 18. Among the 11 names hurriedly declared, TMC’s newly minted Rajya Sabha MP Luizinho Faleiro’s stands out. One of the candidates made it to the list within an hour of resigning from his local party.

Faleiro is pitched to contest against Goa Forward Party’s (GFP) leader Vijai Sardesai from the Fatorda constituency.

GFP – which won three seats in 2017 – was among the first regional parties to have been approached by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee for a merger or a pre-election tie-up. Both were turned down. Sardesai is now in an alliance with the Congress, which has so far given him three seats.

TMC’s payback strategy: to unsettle Sardesai and pit Faleiro into a contest he has no stomach for – he had told this journalist he would not be standing for local elections after he became MP.

The TMC MP did not respond to calls, neither did the party’s Goa election in-charge Mahua Moitra.

Calling TMC’s move a deliberate ploy to try and bring him down after he spurned their advances, Sardesai told The Wire he refused “to be taken at gunpoint by a Bengali party. Their agenda has been exposed. They are here to only split the non-BJP vote.”

Also read: Ground Report: Goa Wants Change, but Isn’t Sure Who to Vote For

Soon after the announcement of Faleiro’s candidature, the GFP leader received a message from TMC’s poll consultant Prashant Kishor, who has been driving the party’s strategy in Goa.

Kishor had been to Sardesai’s house not once, but thrice, the message said. “You still chose Congress, a party that gave you nothing. You made your choices, we are reacting to it,” he added.

Running an aggressive and expensive poster and media campaign, TMC is learning that deep pockets and paid news alone don’t buy local acceptance, especially in a small state like Goa, which is wary of “outsiders” calling the shots in politics, government and state policy. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) met with similar hostility in 2017 when it contested 39 of 40 seats and drew a blank.

Some promising candidates – most notable among them are former Congress MLA Reginaldo Lourenco, former MGP member Lavoo Mamledar, former independent MLA Prasad Gaonkar – who were proposing to join the TMC or had joined the party, abandoned ship.

Within a month, Lourenco opted out from the party, saying he had faced “a backlash from people” who wanted him to return to the Congress. The appeal didn’t cut much ice with the Congress though, which denied him a ticket. He will now contest as an independent from Curtorim constituency.

TMC’s “lavish and aggressive campaign” and poaching of MLAs has been criticised not only by the Congress which turned down its recent overtures for an alliance, but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) too, which lost its long-time ally Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) to a tie-up of convenience with Banerjee’s party.

BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on January 20, Thursday said Goa has rejected TMC’s “manner of politics”. “The aggression they have shown and the manner in which they have come with suitcases as if Goa’s leaders are for sale in the market cannot inspire confidence in the people.”

Considering past history, the MGP could go any which way if no party gains a majority.

Also read: Goa Polls: To Offset Anti-incumbency, BJP Turns to Hindutva, Polarisation

In an interview to PTI recently, Congress leader P. Chidambaram argued that neither AAP nor TMC had a cadre base in the constituencies. “They have attempted to build their parties through defections from the other parties, notably the Congress.”

With time running out and a strategy designed for disruption, primarily in seats where the Congress has a strong presence, TMC could end up weakening the fight against the BJP far more than AAP, which is trying its hand possibly in all 40 seats, giving the saffron party a shot at recouping from the strong anti-incumbent sentiment in Goa. Most of Goa’s 40 constituencies have a voter base of less than 30,000. A thousand votes taken away can make or break a winning candidate.

In a bitter contest over the secular vote, the last-minute arrival of the Nationalist Congress Party-Shiv Sena combine gives rebels from all corners a chance to dive into the mix.

Goa Minister Michael Lobo, Another MLA Quit BJP Ahead of Polls

Asked whether he will join the Congress, Lobo said he is in talks with other political parties. He claimed that people were unhappy with the ruling BJP in the coastal state.

Panaji: Goa minister Michael Lobo and Bhartiya Janata Party MLA L.A. Pravin Zantye resigned from the party as well as the assembly on Monday, ahead of the state polls scheduled next month.

The Goa BJP unit later said such moves will not affect the party’s prospects in the state assembly elections, to be held on February 14.

Chief minister Pramod Sawant said “a few defections” cannot deter the agenda of good governance and expressed confidence that the people of Goa will vote his party to power for another term.

Lobo, who represented the Calangute assembly constituency and held charge of the state port and waste management departments, submitted his resignation to the chief minister’s office and the Goa assembly’s speaker in the morning.

He is likely to join the Indian National Congress, according to sources.

“I have resigned from both the posts. I will see what steps are to be taken next. I have also resigned from the BJP,” Lobo later told reporters.

Asked whether he will join the Congress, Lobo said he is in talks with other political parties. He claimed that people were unhappy with the ruling BJP in the coastal state.

“The voters told me that the BJP is no more a party of the common people,” he said while claiming that the grass-root level workers were feeling ignored by the party.

A couple of hours later, Zantye, who represented the Mayem assembly segment, also tendered his resignation from the BJP and the state assembly.

Zantye told reporters that he had joined the BJP at the behest of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, and claimed that after the latter’s death, he was sidelined in the party. He also claimed that his constituency faced the problem of unemployment, which the state government “failed” to address.

Meanwhile, CM Sawant in a tweet said, “Bharatiya Janata Party is a big family that continues to serve the motherland with full devotion! A few defections, to fulfil the agenda of greed and personal interests cannot deter our agenda of good governance.”

“Goan people have seen BJP’s governance and development model for a decade and I am sure that they will give us another term in their service. Jai Hind, Jai Goa,” the chief minister said in another tweet.

Goa BJP president Sadanand Shet Tanavade said Lobo’s decision to leave the party will have no impact on its prospects in the upcoming state polls. Lobo had left the party long back and he was only physically present with us, Tanavade said. “He may have left, but other workers in the Calangute Assembly constituency are with the party,” he said.

The BJP will field a fresh candidate to retain the Calangute assembly seat in the elections, Tanavade said.

The Election Commission of India on Saturday announced that elections to all 40 Assembly constituencies in Goa would be held on February 14.

The BJP, Congress, Goa Forward Party (GFP), Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Trinamool Congress Party (TMC), and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) are the main political parties in the fray.

In the 2017 Goa Assembly polls, the Congress had emerged as the single largest party, but it failed to form the government. The BJP had then tied-up with some regional outfits and independents to come to power in the coastal state.

Congress currently has only two MLAs in the state.

(PTI)

Goa Polls: To Offset Anti-Incumbency, BJP Turns to Hindutva, Polarisation

With the recent spate of resignations from the party and a deep sense of anger against the government, BJP has come to realise that it cannot win the elections without resorting to communal politics.

Panaji: The recent ‘temple’ remark by Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant has stoked controversy and even put several BJP leaders in an uncomfortable situation. Political observers from the state believe such a statement was “uncalled for”.

“Some temples that were destroyed during the Portuguese rule were rebuilt by our ancestors, and now, the government has also helped in the beautification of some of these temples. There are more temples that are left to be rebuilt. In the 60th year of liberation, we want to start rebuilding the temples that the Portuguese destroyed. I ask you to once again preserve Hindu Sanskriti and Mandir Sanskriti. I ask you to give us the strength to rebuild these temples,” Sawant said while speaking at a public meeting in Ponda on December 21, 2021.

In another instance, in the first week of October 2021, Sawant, while inaugurating a church in Ribandar, said, “Even during the Portuguese rule and after they left, there was no difference between Goans on the lines of caste, creed or colour. But today, I want to specifically make this point, religious conversion forces have entered Goa. I want to remind Goans to be on guard.”

What explains such statements laced with communalism and aimed at polarisation when elections in the state are less than two months away?

The Wire spent the last 10 days of December 2021 visiting various constituencies across the state in order to understand the prevailing mood and political dynamics. One broad trend that has come to the fore is that there is a wave of deep anger against the ruling dispensation in Goa, cutting across religion and caste demographics.

Growing unemployment, rising prices of essential commodities and rampant corruption over the current government’s 10 years in power have contributed to the anti-incumbency.

In the last two years, Goa has also witnessed mass protests against government projects like the proposed IIT-Goa project at Shel-Melauli, the double-tracking project by the South Western Railways and also against illegal construction of bungalow-connected to a BJP leader from Mumbai on a heritage site in Old Goa.

Is the BJP trying its hands at polarisation to offset the effects of anti-incumbency, which is growing by the day? Political observers in the state believe so.

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

Speaking to The Wire, advocate and political analyst Cleofato Coutinho says, “The anti-incumbency is so high that recent imports from other parties are not enough. The development plank is also not working. So, the BJP is back to basics. Do what it is good at. Polarise. The statement of Goa’s chief minister that temples destroyed during the Portuguese rule must be rebuilt is a direct attempt to divide the society on communal lines. It is against the Places of Worship Act, which orders the status quo. The CM and BJP as an organisation have no popular impact like Manohar Parrikar. So, this is their last desperate attempt.”

How was Parrikar’s politics different?

Between 1999 and 2007, three assembly elections were held in Goa. Its worst performance during that period was in 1999 when the party managed to win 10 seats. In 2002, BJP registered its best performance by securing 17 seats in a 40-member assembly.

In 2007, former chief minister Manohar Parrikar completely overhauled the party’s election strategy.

Amit Shah, Manohar Parrikar and others at the event at Dabolim airport on July 1. Credit: Facebook/BJP Goa

File photo of Amit Shah, Manohar Parrikar and others at the event at Dabolim airport, Goa. Photo: Facebook/BJP Goa.

In the 2012 assembly election, for the first time, BJP fielded six (20%) Christian candidates and all of them won. In the elections before that, the party fielded just two Christian candidates. Again in 2017, the saffron party further increased Christian representation and fielded eight candidates, and of whom seven were elected.

If one closely looks at Goa’s demography, Salcette, Mormugao, Tiswadi, Quepem and Bardez talukas, comprising 17 seats, have a sizeable number of minority voters, accounting for 40%, who significantly determine the electoral outcomes. What’s more, there are another seven seats in the state where minorities account for more than 25% of the votes.

Parrikar understood that without Christian votes, BJP can never form a government of its own in Goa. Parrikar even maintained cordial relations with the Church. One of BJP’s poll promises directed at the Christian community in the 2012 election was representation for the community in government jobs in the state.

New pattern?

A lot has changed now. On taking a closer look at current political developments, it shows that BJP’s Christian MLAs are primarily upset with the party’s functioning. Two MLAs, who recently resigned, are Christians. Vasco MLA, Carlos Almeida, and Cortalim MLA, Alina Saldanha, resigned last week. Both are also known as Parrikar loyalists.

Senior minister and MLA from Calangute constituency, Michael Lobo, has been critical of the party leadership. “Today, the party has become commercialised. The party is now only guided by the principle of importing winning candidates, irrespective of their background. Loyalists of the former chief minister in the state are being sidelined,” says Lobo.

Speaking to The Wire, a BJP MLA from South Goa, who does not want to be named, says, “Calangute MLA Michael Lobo and Canacona MLA Isidore Fernandes may resign and join some other parties.” Again, both are Christian MLAs from BJP.

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

The South Goa MLA further adds, “Chief Minister’s temple remark was unwarranted. Many leaders and workers of our party were hurt because of the statement.”

Former ZP member from Curtorim, Moreno Rebello, who recently joined BJP in the presence of the chief minister, resigned on December 30, following reports of attacks on churches and Christians in various BJP-ruled states, especially in Karnataka.

“Recent developments across the country, especially against minorities, pained me. People from my area exerted pressure on me to leave the BJP. Ever since I joined BJP, I was getting suffocated. I pulled myself out of a problem which I had myself created. I am at peace now,” Rebello said while speaking to the media.

It appears that the chief minister’s recent comments are in line with BJP’s new strategy of employing hardcore Hindutva politics mixed with Konkani pride, which is unusual for Goan politics. Political analysts believe BJP’s focus is to consolidate Hindu votes and win maximum seats.

Speaking to The Wire, veteran Goa journalist from the state Sandesh Prabhudesai says, “BJP has lost its charisma after Manohar Parrikar. Corruption has reached its peak. It is losing ground day by day. Getting 10 more MLAs from Congress and two from the MGP [Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party] was a clear sign of its weakness. By getting more Congressmen and other sitting MLAs of GFP [Goa Forward Party] and Independents to fight the upcoming election was the second sign of desperation.

With minorities no more supporting the Hindutva party, dropping the Christian MLAs is the third sign of desperation. And trying to polarise voters by making statements like rebuilding demolished temples is yet another desperate attempt. The real challenge now before the BJP is to get back its party cadres whom they sidelined in almost 18 constituencies for its power-hungry games. I think Goan voters are wise enough to analyse this and react accordingly when voting.”

Goa: Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party Announces Pre-poll Alliance With Mamata’s TMC

The MGP, which had won three seats in the 2017 polls to the 40-member Goa assembly, is currently left with only one MLA after two of its legislators joined the ruling BJP.

Panaji: The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) on Monday announced that it would contest the forthcoming Goa Assembly elections in alliance with the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC).

Addressing a press conference, MGP president Deepak Dhavalikar said their party’s central committee resolved to have an alliance with the TMC for the state polls due early next year.

Details like who would be the chief ministerial face (of the alliance) would be worked out later, he said.

The MGP, which had won three seats in the 2017 polls to the 40-member Goa assembly, is currently left with only one Member of Legislative Assembly after two of its legislators joined the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

The TMC has already decided to contest the Goa assembly polls and expressed confidence that it will do well in the elections.

Dhavalikar said both the parties have joined hands to provide good governance to the people of the state.

“There is a wave against the BJP. People want a change and we will be able to form government in the state,” he claimed.

Dhavalikar said an impression was being created that the MGP did not have any option other than the BJP.

Also read: In TMC’s National Brand-Building Spree, Varied Backgrounds of Its Inductees Have Unique Weight

We have always been criticising the BJP. We were in talks with all other parties like the Aam Aadmi Party, the Congress and the TMC, he said.

The MGP chief claimed 60% of the people in the state are yet to decide whom to vote for, hence this option has been provided to them.

He said the MGP can contest the election on its own, but considering the current political scenario, it has been decided to go for a pre-poll alliance.

In the 2017 Goa assembly polls, the Congress emerged as the single largest party by winning 17 seats in the 40-member House. But, the BJP at that time forged an alliance with some regional outfits and independent legislators to form the government.

The Congress currently has only four legislators in the state.

(PTI)