There are still over 12 months to go before the year 2017 dawns and with it will come the elections to the Legislative Assembly of Goa. That’s when they are scheduled, though they could also be held earlier. It is early days yet, but the political parties in the State are already falling into election mode. Buoyed by the results of the elections to the municipal councils, the Congress has become the first party to get into election mode, and perhaps its needs to set the campaign rolling, given that the party in the recent months was almost non-existent. The party selected the place, date and theme carefully for the unofficial launch of its election campaign. On the birth anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister the party leaders met at Lohia Maidan in Margao and took an oath of tolerance portraying an united front. It was like an orchestrated performance but without the visible presence of event managers or public relation personnel.
The date was significant to the party it being Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary and also celebrated as Children’s Day, and the oath of tolerance added just the right touch to the meeting as the country is reeling under the growing intolerance. And of course, Margao has to be the town from where the party has to launch its bid to return to power. Salcete has always given the party a large share of its MLAs and the South is where most of its leaders come from.
With that setting, all that was needed was for a reformed party to make its presence felt on the dais. And the transformation of the party at this meeting was very evident. While taking an oath of tolerance, it showed quite clearly that it would not tolerate the ‘bad governance’ of the Bharatiya Janata Party in the State. The determined tone with which the Congress leaders spoke was very different from the last month when the same men were being apologetic about the past. In Margao, on Saturday, the party was attacking the government, showing its united colours and most important of all, its State unit President made it quite clear that the party would contest all 40 seats that make up the Goa Legislative Assembly, an announcement that would send many potential allies back to their planning boards to change strategy.
Congress has perhaps learnt something from its 2012 defeat for its early start resembles the head start the BJP had taken in that campaign, when Congress that was in power at that time had been complacent and had not ventured into the campaign fray till late in the day. But, its biggest coup on Saturday was getting two BJP members who have RSS links to quit the party and join Congress. Congress has shown that it is no longer going to sit back and wait for events to happen but is going to make things happen, a change that the BJP would not like to see in its opponent.
The BJP is not going to have an easy run the coming elections. If the BJP will have to deal with a resurgent Congress, then it will also have to handle a belligerent Goa Vikas Party, whose supremo has already announced that the party will contest all 40 Assembly seats. It remains in alliance with the BJP, but the GVP is already looking forward to spreading its wings in the coming Assembly polls and increasing its numbers in the Assembly.
There are months to go before an election is called and the political scenario could change in all those weeks ahead. But right now, as it faces accusations of intolerance across the country, it is the BJP that has stepped on the back foot and allowed the Opposition to take some steps ahead.
