The highest command of the Aam Admi Party, Arvind Kejriwal has handpicked and declared Goa’s long serving bureaucrat and now freshly minted politician, Elvis Gomes, to be its Chief Ministerial candidate. While the choice itself will obviously have its own share of supporters and critics, it is important to flag a few issues for consideration.
In the manner in which it picked Gomes, the AAP almost did it in the manner in which the BJP handpicks faces as CM, as it happens in a presidential election. The declaration of the candidate, immediately nullifies the role of the legislature party and its legitimate right to decide its next CM or leader of the opposition of simply leader of the party in the House, depending on the seats they win.
One is not questioning the choice of Elvis Gomes but wanting to understand the process by which AAP arrived at that decision? Was there an exercise conducted across the state or meetings held with the whole team of candidates selected, who in turn consulted people in their respective constituencies?
Compare this to the BJP’s choice of Parrikar as its CM candidate, without having the need to actually announce that he was the party’s CM face in 2012. For starters, it was obvious to the people of Goa, in 2012, that the BJP was seeking and would get a mandate for Manohar Parrikar.
On the other hand and on a much larger scale, when it came to the BJP handpicking its national Prime Ministerial candidate before the 2014 elections, the party realised that it needed a drastic diversion to get its core vote bank of strong right wing Hindutva voters, coupled with need for good governance. The success of both these choices is not the point of debate here. The thought process which went into their selection is.
The AAP’s choice of Kejriwal for its Delhi elections too was obvious since Kejriwal was the party and the party was Kejriwal.
Thus as Kejriwal “declared” his party’s Goa candidate for CM, it seemed like the high command’s pronouncement, rather than a conclusion arrived at by consulting Goans or at least AAP’s Goan supporters and members. By the way, there is no rule or compulsion that AAP needs to do so. It can very well say that the core decision-making Delhi centric group feels this is best for the party, which is fine. But then, this has to be clear and transparent for reasons that are obvious.
This decision means that Elvis Gomes has no one constituency. He has to be accepted as much in Cuncolim as in Cumbharjua, as much in Panjim as in Pernem, as much in Shiroda as in Sankhli. Can he be, will he be the go to guy, for all those seeking the big change that Kejriwal talks about? Is he the answer to all questions and doubts that the people of Goa have?
Meanwhile, AAP is increasingly showing itself as a party whose key interests lie in South Goa, which is traditional Congress territory. With its choice of its CM candidate from Cuncolim, it has further given weight to this assumption, which is why it is imperative that the AAP makes its position and stand clear on two critical issues- whether it backs the Mopa airport in the a manner which the project is moving ahead, affecting livelihoods of South Goa hoteliers and taxi owners, and secondly which side of the fence does AAP stand on the issue of medium of instruction.
Clearly, after the Dec 19 rally, AAP does not have the luxury of sitting on the fence anymore.
The choice of Elvis by AAP is hardly borne on the same sentiment.
