And let’s call that something loud and clear. It’s a very clever orchestrated move to either get it all within the Congress, which means an unchecked fiefdom of Sattari and parts of Bicholim and Mayem taluka and declaring his father the CM candidate for 2017, failing which he would create a splinter group, which would do political business after the elections if it gets three to four seats. And in the event of a hung assembly, the stock value of the four seats will be akin to a thumping brute majority of 25 plus.
Therefore, it will be a political blunder to analayse Junior Rane’s assertion that he will reject the GPCC’s decision on candidates and his indirect snub to the president Luizinho Faleiro, as a mere “anti-party” activity. It’s a calculated move, which could not have been made without the blessings of his father, the veteran Pratapsingh Rane, in order to make a desperate final fling at personal and family power. Of course, they will give their party the right of first refusal for this arrangement where the party organisation succumbs and plays second fiddle to the Ranes. And when that does not happen, they will break away to focus only on their five seats and then be open to “negotiations” even with the BJP to have a shot at power.
This gameplan has shades of the Dhavlikar formula, where the Dhavlikar brothers find themselves in any political combination because they simply love the treasury benches and cabinet posts. When did we last fund Sudin and Deepak Dhavlikar as a part of the opposition?
For Vishwajit though, this is not new territory. In 2012, it was Junior Rane who took the lead (though he denies it) to break away Dayanand Sobte and Rajesh Patnekar from the BJP. Add Uady Paleykar to the list and the trio became “Baba’s (Vishwajit) boys. While their resounding defeat should have taught the party a lesson of not subverting the candidate selection process, Junior Rane got away by offering the excuse that the anti-Congress wave affected all. His backing of Pravin Zantye, son of veteran Congressman and cashew king Anna Zantye, for the Mayem seat is a repeat of 2012, with the exception that Zantye does not need to defect from the BJP.
The GPCC would do well, to think of a plan B in the Valpoi, Poriem, Bicholim, Sanquelim and Mayem, which Vishwajit has claimed as his political coup. At the same time this space is worth watching, only to see how the BJP plays this. If it strikes an understanding with Junior Rane, then it might either step back or field dummies to ensure that Rane’s group wins. But this may not be an easy option, given the BJP’s own grass root organisation in these areas. At the same time Junior Rane may do another orchestrated over reach to regional forces. But irrespective of what he does, his moves will end up strengthening the BJP. If that is counted as an “achievement” for one of Goa’s longest standing Congress families, then this so-called principal opposition party is indeed in trouble.
The Congress cannot risk the machinations of some of its power hungry leaders any more who play their personal power games, with the Congress, only a blip in the background.
