MGP and BJP had fought the 2012 polls together in 2012 despite MGP being ally of Congress during the Digambar Kamat government from 2005 to 2012.
Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar, however, said they will not snap ties with MGP. “We will not stop MGP from severing ties. We can’t keep anyone under lock and key. But from our side we will not break the alliance,” was what Parsekar said when asked to comment on the ties with MGP.
On the other hand there have been several comments from the MGP faction with the party president stating, “We can’t assure any alliance for 2017 polls. We will take a call on it four months prior to the election (in 2017).”
Dhavalikar said party workers were not happy with BJP’s attitude towards them. Considering the recent developments of Aam Aadmi party getting huge response for their rally and the Congress trying to make a comeback, one opines that the BJP and MGP need to stitch in an alliance if they need to regain power.
However, it is easier said than done as both the parties have several issues to settle, Herald counts a few for its readers.
MOI issue
What has hurt BJP more is the MGP stating that the alliance with BJP will depend on solution to Medium of Instruction issue as this has divided the BJP vote base.
The MGP has extended its total support to the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch, which is demanding the withdrawal of all grants to English schools. Minister for Public Works Department Ramakrishna ‘Sudin’ Dhavalikar said that on a number of occasions in the recent past the MGP leaders had requested the BJP-led government to withdraw its grants to over 100 English primary schools around Goa, but these requests were met with rejection.
“The MGP is firmly behind the Bharatiya Bhasha Suraksha Manch and its demand as regards withdrawal of government grants to these schools,” he stated, observing that the state MOI policy needs to be rectified on many counts.
Dhavalikar has also allowed the party workers to join the BBSM meetings on MOI.
BJP insulted MGP MLAs?
Highly placed sources in the MGP disclose that the general feeling among majority central committee members is similar: “The BJP not only used the MGP for its own benefit, but insulted its members time and again.”
The major insult, they feel, is stripping Dipak of co-operation portfolio while not replacing it with another ‘lucrative’ portfolio, in spite of an assurance.
Recruitment snub
The recruitment proposal of almost 300 posts in Sudin Dhavalikar’s PWD department rejected in the last minute by Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar.
The MGP has been very hurt. And it is being expressed. One of the Central Committee members of the MGP said, “Manohar Parrikar and Parsekar did not offer a single post of a corporation chairman or even a director to the central committee members, but only repeated empty promises.”
MGP central committee demands severing ties
On February 13, 2016, the MGP central committee demanded severing ties with BJP.
Senior members of Goa’s oldest party felt that the party needs to review poor performance of the BJP-led government as well as the frequent U turns on most of the promises made during 2012 election. Dipak Dhavalikar, the MGP president and a minister, confirmed that decision regarding the alliance would be taken only between three to six months before the Assembly election is announced.
“We will start going to the cadres as well as voters from March to gauge the public response before taking a final decision regarding the alliance,” he said.
Clamour in BJP to sever ties
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders as well as party workers have called upon party leadership to immediately terminate the alliance with MGP and remove the Dhavalikar brothers from the state cabinet.
BJP workers claim that the MGP leadership was trying to undermine the national party into submission to its diktats so as to weaken the BJP base in constituencies presently held by it (BJP).
“They are trying to weaken our base and lure our party workers promising them rewards, like assembly tickets,” said a senior BJP leader.
Citing examples of the MGP enrolling BJP members from St Cruz constituency as well as propping up its candidates in Canacona and Bicholim, where BJP was in a much stronger position than its junior partner, the BJP leaders said that these acts together with MGP propping up candidates in all the constituencies were clear signals of MGP motives to break the alliance.
The BJP leaders have said that it would be better to fight with a known enemy rather than a party whose leadership was hell-bent on burrowing the party with whose help it gained the most. Many others in the BJP say that the MGP leadership would do the same thing that it did to Congress during the tenure of the last assembly.
Lavoo, Tendulkar spat
Of late, Ponda MLA Lavoo Mamladar has been spewing venom at the BJP leaders, ministers and workers for what he called “was blocking development work in his constituency.”
During a visit to Ponda, the BJP president Vinay Tendulkar also took a dig at Lavoo asking him to stop spreading baseless allegations and misinformation against the BJP and its leaders in Ponda.
Ponda the bone of contention?
The fights within the alliance partners seem to have put the locals to hardships. Ponda MLA has accused the BJP govt of halting projects like the STP and RGKM; BJP-backed councillors say works are stalled due to MLA’s inability to follow up on the same;
As MGP MLA Lavoo Mamledar and the BJP-backed Ponda Municipal Council (PMC) fight each other on various issues, citizens are worried about developmental work being stalled. It has reached a point where WhatsApp and social media users are talking about the fight; they have stated that both sides have forgotten why they were elected and that people are suffering due to non-performance on the development front.
Sawaikar’s effigy burnt
Angry MGP workers earlier this year burnt an effigy of South Goa MP Narendra Sawaikar on the medium of instruction issue, after which the BJP asked Mamledar to resign as the chairperson of the RGKM, besides other posts.
No solution to Ponda sopo issue
Due to differences within the BJP- and MGP factions the long pending sopo issue in Ponda is far from settled.
The Sopo issue in Ponda, which was almost forgotten, has been revived after two years, with the Ponda Municipal Council (PMC) resolving to initiate legal proceedings against the market vendors for the recovery of sopo arrears of around Rs 35 lakh.
Vendors say no effort has been made to sit together to sort out the issue, due to which the PMC has been unable to recover sopo arrears of Rs 35 lakhs.
The Ponda market vendors had launched an agitation in 2014-15 against the exorbitant hike in the sopo rate from Rs 5 to Rs 20 for the vendors in the market shed and Rs 10 in the open market.
Thereafter, former chief minister Manohar Parrikar intervened and reduced further the rate to Rs 12 for vendors in the market shed and Rs 6 in the open market. But the matter has not been solved.
