For those of you who were old enough to take that decisive decision to shape Goa’s destiny, fifty years ago, the emotions that were palpable then, would have remained through these fifty years. After all, no one forgets that day, when a land gives you the right to decide its future. And as you voted for Goa to remain unique and not as an appendage of Maharashtra, you did so, not merely to prove a point, but to stamp your responsibility of  keeping the future of Goa safe.

Fifty years later, to the day, yet another opinion poll has arrived. And the decision you take today, to be executed on February 4, is based on clear choices, as the opinion poll was. Do you want a merger with the forces of deal making? Do you want a merger with those who promise change and then deceive you by doing the same tricks, as the Congress in Goa has done? Do you want a merger with those who say that they have learnt from the mistakes of the past and then select candidates and enter in adjustments or alliances in some form (even they aren’t sure what to call these dalliances).

When the poll process began the need to claim the challengers space in a very serious and decisive election, was a felt need, and with a lot of reluctance due to the past baggage of deal making and corruption for which the Congress was booted out in 2012, the challenger’s space was allotted to the party due to the initial visible display of serious organisation building set in motion by the GPCC chief.  These winds were expected to carry the party forward, with the next phase being selecting a new line of leadership, bursting with energy and minimising the influence of those who were apart of the reason why the Congress got decimated in the last elections.

But as the elections got near, the Congress in Goa started playing games, the most important of which, was the game of trying to be too clever. It’s the favorite game of this grand old party where it thinks it is the smartest and the people are fools. As they started playing this game, they played by their own rules. They allowed the same old faces to dominate decision making. And the first decision they made was to prolong the sagging careers of those who have already been given too many chances and refuse to give up, when a new Goa with new hopes wants a change in the way politics and governance is conducted.

Out of frustration at the undermining of its party and its local aspirations of the Congress, there is a silent but a very strong undercurrent towards AAP. And this is the conscience vote. This is the support of those who simply want a better Goa and if the AAP can stay true to delivering on key issues and concerns for Goa which will rejuvenate Goa, through local leadership and inputs, then the “dilliwallah” tag will be removed by the collective conscience of the people.

The Congress in the last week has shown that it cannot even pretend to be a local party. Its deal makers and their political bosses in Delhi have undermined the party from top. Delhi’s crooked dynamics have scored over local aspirations. The Congress is ruled by Delhi and diliwallahs. All AAP needs to do is tap into the genuine aspirations of locals and deliver governance.

This is how the Congress has betrayed Goa, step by step. They brought back grand dad veterans while talking of new faces. The excuse they offered was winnability – Ravi Naik for Ponda, Subhash Shirodkar for Shiroda, Pratapsingh Rane for Poriem and Digambar Kamat for Margao. It almost seemed as if these constituencies were 

the personal property of the grandfather brigade of the Congress. And how does the winnability argument hold for Shirodkar and Ravi Naik? Did they win the last elections? If they were really ‘winable’, why couldn’t they win against the negative tide of 2012? Calling losers winnable when there is the anti-incumbency advantage speaks for itself. In both Shiroda and in Ponda new leaders could have been fielded and those who have lived in the shadows of the star leaders whether they win or lose or even do match-fixing with the ruling party for some elections should have been backed.

Now let’s go to those who won. In Margao, if you take the migrant vote of Moti Dongor out of the equation, do you think Kamat will actually win? For years, he remains unchallenged on the basis of bulk voting of people in one slum area. How can that be seen as a referendum of Margao towards him? And based on this seat he wins due to 3000-odd votes he gets in the Moti Dongor booths, and other migrant votes, he takes a shot at Chief Ministership, by carefully planting his candidates and at the same time keeping other potential allies loyal to him and not the party. Does the Congress get strong here or Digambar Kamat? So what kind of winnability is this? 

Ditto for the Ranes. After close to three decades in power, have the Ranes created the next generation of leaders in Valpoi and Poriem? Who takes over the mantle? Will other families, who do not belong to the feudal set up have a chance. Will the Congress be able to change the supposed winnability of the Ranes into actual winnability of the Congress? When has the Congress last won in Valpoi and Poriem. It’s always the Ranes and it’s not the same as Congress winning.

So in short, the Congress has self-destructed. And Herald has clearly called it. There are two camps. One of GPCC president Luizinho Faleiro and AICC secretary Dr A Chella Kumar who want the Congress to go it alone and respect the wishes of the blocks and grassroots leaders to fight with pride without deals or alliances. The other camp consists of Digvijay Singh, the desk in-charge of AICC who has so unfortunately slipped in our esteem totally. He has proved to be deal maker in chief, doing backroom deals with Goa Forward and Babush Monserrate. His partners in deal making have been Digambar Kamat and Pratapsingh Rane. And then they haven’t been true to all parties either. After leading its most natural ally, the NCP up the garden path, they dumped them 72 hours before the close of nominations. The shape of its “alliance” or whatever you call it, with Goa Forward is not yet clear, but there is a cat and mouse game going on which will lead to either total surrender to GF by giving them three seats, or the betrayal of Congressmen, by asking GF candidates to convert to Congress ones.

But Goa will rise above all this? Goa is bigger than the sum of its petty politicians. Goenkarponn also means changing the face of politics by making it a people centric one, by letting in the fresh air of new faces, encouraging young people in their twenties and thirties with no political background to contest elections. This could well be the beginning of a new true peoples movement where locals will shape their destiny’s through participative politics that the Congress has long forgotten.

And Opinion Poll day, is perhaps the best day to acknowledge this.