The Sal has remained the same but Salcete has changed, it’s politics for sure. And as the BJP made its first serious foray onto the only bastion it could not conquer in the wave of 2012, Fatorda, on Saturday, what has changed is this. In 2012, the BJP was confident of taking Salcete because of a massive change of heart. In 2017, the BJP has to use all its mind and it’s political sagacity to get seats out of Salcete and even the rest of South Goa.
The nature of the campaign which will follow will be low, personal and no holds barred. The narrative will shift from issues to personalities. And this aggression will be politically bloody, littered with name calling, as was witnessed in the sankalp yatra meeting of the BJP in Fatorda on Saturday.
BJP’s Salcete strategy doesn’t need any interpretation from a political pundit. In constituencies where the fight is direct, the attack will be personality based, in places where the ground is even and there are multiple contests, the plan will be to use specific forces to divide. In areas where the Aam Admi Party inroads will do its job of splitting votes, the BJP will just let it happen.
In Cuncolim, the case of Rajan Naik was as good as over, but with the emergence of AAP and the divide between Joacquim Alemao supporters and the fresh Congress team which has unified against this Alemao, Naik is back in contention. In Velim too, the Congress and the Goa Forward vote divide will only help Benjamin Silva. In Curtorim, like in Fatorda, the BJP has to take on a man and not any party, in Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco, as the contest will be straighter and not multi-pronged. In Navelim, the challenge is harder since it is almost certain that Luizinho Faleiro and Churchill Alemao will arrive at an understanding where support will be traded in Navelim and Benaulim. In Nuvem, the BJP will now get into an equation with Mickky Pacheco less, Goa Vikas Party, through his one time ally Lyndon Monteiro, who was blessed with a corporation Chairmanship during this term and hope that he will do the job that Pacheco did in 2012. The BJP hopes to benefit from the Congress, NCP and the Mickky Pacheco votes (he is trying to close his ticket with UGDP) splitting.
Out of Salcete though, its main hopes lie in sewing its alliance with the MGP, to nullify the impact of BBSM’s political arm, the Goa Suraksha Manch. Across Ponda, Curchorem and Sanguem, this needs to be done along with handling internal divisions like in Savordem where party president Vinay Tendulkar wants to oust sitting MLA Ganesh Gaonkar and get a ticket.
But clearly a lot of ground has been covered, primarily because of a deeply divided opposition.
From a situation which looked like a complete rout, due to the heart change of Xaxtikars, the BJP, by simply using its mind, has pulled itself out of an impossible situation. It’s still not home in Salcete, and has moved out of the hearts of many Xaxtikar’s. But with multiple suitors vying for Xaxti hearts, the paradigm shift away for the BJP is not yet visible, since political romance, unlike the ones in Mills and Boon novels, is a numbers game and the numbers against the BJP are deeply divided.
BJP will therefore have to use chanyakaneeti ( the art of manipulation used by the legendry Chanakya, who authored the ancient Indian political treatise, the Arthashastra) to counter its loss of romance in Salcete.
