It’s almost as if defections by Goa’s MLAs are actually expected. But, if the results do follow the pattern of these exit polls, past experience inspires no confidence that MLAs won’t change sides or that smaller parties will not shift positions and align with the very larger parties they fought against in the polls. The ugly truth is that the possibility of defections does exist and, however, much we may attempt to play it down, it is tarring the image of Goan politics.
The series of defection of the past few years does give the impression that MLAs in Goa are a purchasable commodity. That is not the reputation that Goa deserves, but the political establishment has brought this classification upon itself. Four other States went to the polls along with Goa but the stigma of defections is only being associated with Goa, though parties are also taking precautions to guard against defections in some other States. And, as if to prove that loyalties are not important in Goa, regional parties and Independent candidates have been quite vocal on the possibility of lending support to larger parties depending on who has a chance of winning. None are looking at whether the ideologies of the parties are in tune with their own. The greed for power could overshadow all other considerations.
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Beware the Ides of March, was the soothsayer’s warning to Julius Caesar that has been dramatised by William Shakespeare to become a famous quote, one recalled around this time of the year and when there is a betrayal. Caesar was assassinated by his own senators on that March day. Drawing a parallel, one can almost see the palpable fear in the parties as they await the results of the elections. The fear is not so much of winning or losing, which is of course there, but of their winning MLAs deserting them and switching to the other side. A sad day it will be if this happens in the next five years. If the MLAs do defect it will be Goa that is being betrayed and stabbed, and so it is Goa that has to beware the Ides of March this year, and it can come at any time, not necessarily on March 15 the actual Ides of March.
We will know today, March 10, how the people have voted and who they have chosen to lead them for the next five years. The electronic voting machines will beep out their secrets and a clear picture is expected to be out before noon, as all 40 constituencies will be taken up for counting simultaneously at 8am, unlike in the past when constituencies were taken up in batches and so results were out by mid afternoon. The real political drama will occur after the results are out, when the parties, depending on the number of seats they have won, jostle to form the government.
The mandate of the people, whichever way it goes, has to be respected. The results, even if it happens to be a hung Assembly, do not call for defections as these are nothing other than betrayals by the MLAs. By changing sides they betray the State, the people, the party. People definitely do not vote to allow the MLA to defect. This, those who will be elected to the Legislative Assembly have to bear in mind and this has to be what will keep them glued to the party on whose symbol they have been elected. After the results are out, there should be no defections.
