Eight of the Congress’s 11 MLAs have joined the ruling BJP, in the latest iteration of a Goan curse. The State has gained a particular notoriety for its politicians brazenly switching sides in utter disregard for the people’s verdict. BJP Chief Minister Pramod Sawant has succeeded in splitting the Goa Congress twice in three years. In the previous Assembly, 15 of the 17 Congress MLAs left the party, a majority of them for the BJP. In the February Assembly election, the Congress fielded a large number of newcomers. All 37 of its candidates had twice taken a ‘loyalty pledge,’ once with leader Rahul Gandhi, in a temple, a church and a dargah, and signed affidavits vowing not to defect. All the gods could do little to prick the conscience of these MLAs who betrayed the mandate. If anything, all that drama only made this latest episode of the curse that much more of a mockery of democracy. It is not that Goa is the only place where this happens — in Bihar, the recent realignment in which the JD(U) replaced the BJP with the RJD as its partner amounted to dishonouring the popular verdict. Bihar was a rare instance of the BJP being at the receiving end of its own strategy.
The party has swung back, and in style, in Goa, though it did not need any more MLAs to be in power. In the 40-member strong Assembly, it had 20 MLAs of its own and support from three independents and two MLAs of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP). With the merger of eight Congress MLAs, the government now has the support of 33. The Congress has lost its capacity to be an effective opposition. This was in the making for months now, and the Congress had tried to avert it. As soon as it got wind of the move, the Congress removed Michael Lobo from the post of Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly and Digambar Kamat from his position of being a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC). While both Mr. Lobo and Mr. Kamat have cited disaffection with the Congress high command as reasons, the true reasons are all too transparent. Despite serving as a Congress CM, Mr. Kamat, a seven-time MLA from Margao, has a history of being with the BJP as he was one of the four BJP MLAs who won in 1994. In 2014, the BJP had linked him with a multi-crore mining scam case, whose probe is still hanging over his head. BJP Minister Viswajit Rane had called for an investigation into Mr. Lobo’s assets. Mr. Lobo and his wife Delilah are among the richest MLAs in the coastal State. With the defections of Aleixo Sequeira and Rodolfo Fernandes, the BJP now has a strong foothold in the Catholic-dominated South Goa. Mr. Kamat has said he went back to the temple and got the god’s permission to renege on his pledge of loyalty to the Congress. The people of Goa, meanwhile, are left wondering whether their vote makes any difference.
