Politics | Goa Assembly Elections 2022
The Hunt for Allies
The senior journalist highlights Goa’s political scenario over the last few years, and wonders whether 2022 will be a game-changer for the State Indira Gandhi swept the elections nationwide, they overnight joined Congress (Indira) after the results.
SANDESH PRABHUDESAI
T
he forthcoming Goa Assembly Election 2022 is full of uncertainty at the moment in the background of two elections of immediate past – 2012 and 2017, results of which were diametrically opposite and not being analysed by any political expert till date. In the last four and a half years, the greed for power is displayed shamelessly by each and every political party, as well as leading politicians, by throwing all kinds of principles and ethics to the wind and taking the socalled educated voter of Goa on a real horse (trading) ride! In view of this, while striding towards the next election, not a single party is in a position to face the electorate by going all alone. Neither the opportunist leaders are confident about themselves or about the unpredictable voter of Goa. Goan voters, since Goa’s first election held in 1963, have been a mystery to the politician. In the first ever election, while Congress leaders had even distributed cabinet berths among themselves, Goa’s conscientious voter had wiped out this national party from Goa’s political battlefield and elected the MGP to power with UGP in the opposition. The Congress did not even contest the 1967 election. It started ruling the State since 1980 only when the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and United Goans Party leaders joined the national mainstream, called Congress (Urs). The party swept the election by winning 20 out of 28 seats (2 were Daman and Diu). And when
22 | My Goa | July 2021
Hindu - Christian Bahujan Formula Since then, the concept of HinduChristian unity with ‘Bahujan’ at its core, has been ruling Goa. Bhausaheb Bandodkar was the real architect of this formula, who had ruled with a three-member cabinet: a Hindu Bahujan, a Brahmin and a Christian. In spite of Goa’s conscientious voter getting fed up of series of defections and all kind of power-hungry, blackmoney-driven opportunistic groups coming to power since 1990, the ‘new hope’ like Manohar Parrikar could sit in the saddle only when he also chanted the same political mantra – “Hindu-Christian unity with Bahujan at its core”. The defector and opportunistic politicians had to otherwise somehow manage their victories only by splitting the opposition votes, using caste, religion as well as money and muscle power in order to swing hardly 10 to 20 per cent votes, thanks to the tiny constituencies of 20,000 to 30,000 electorate. But by and large, it has been a diligent vote that has been dominating Goan politics, unlike the rest of India. The rise and fall of the BJP is a clear indicator of this phenomenon, which Parrikar had realised. He had thus skilfully shifted his focus from hard Hindutva to soft Hindutva to Good
Bandodkar was the real architect of the Hindu - Christian Bahujan Formula. Manohar Parrikar could sit in the saddle only when he also chanted the same political mantra
Governance in a desperate attempt to win over the liberal voter of Goa. After making a debut in 1994 with four MLAs, the BJP rose to 10 in 1999 (by breaking alliance with the MGP at the last minute) and jumped to 18 in 2002. However, Parrikar’s attempts to form the government with splinter groups led by the likes of Francisco Sardinha pushed him down to 14 seats in 2007. Who won the 2017 poll? Parrikar could reach the magic figure of 21 only in 2012, when even the Church was disgusted with the Congress and the Hindutva party got seven Christian MLAs elected. The Congress, for the first time in three decades, was pushed down to single digit (nine seats) by Goa’s conscientious voter. In spite of infrastructural development for Goa’s dominant middle class and social schemes for the have-nots, in 2017, however, Parrikar got the shock of his life. The Congress, in spite of incompetence and infightings, rose to 17 while BJP was pushed down to 13. That too with seven Christian MLAs, three Congressmen – Mauvin Godinho, Pandurang Madkaikar and Pravin
