The Bharatiya Janata Party, though it lost the elections heavily losing eight of 21 seats it previously held, succeeded in forming the government with the help of Goa Forward, MGP and Independents. Though the party may have succeeded in snatching victory from the jaws of defeat the questions for party workers is what went wrong? Why were so many seats lost? Party workers say there was development, schemes etc …so why were the candidates rejected?
For the party this is a big question that needs to be answered before the next Lok Sabha polls when they have to go back to the people and seek their mandate.
Six of the eight ministers who were in the fray lost the polls. Laxmikant Parsekar, who was tipped as the next CM of Goa besides Forest Minister Rajendra Arlekar, Industries Minister Mahadev Naik, WRD Minister Dayanand Mandrekar and Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar were amongst those who faced humiliating defeats. At the review meeting, several defeated leaders blamed the Church and the issue of Medium of Instruction for their loss. To this were added the breaking of the alliance with Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), amendments to the Tenancy Act.
However, BJP leaders must introspect and determine for themselves why they lost instead of blaming the Church or anyone else. It’s simple logic, had the Catholics not voted for the BJP, would seven of the 13 elected BJP MLAs be Catholic? Could the seven MLAs – Francis D’Souza, Michael Lobo, Nilesh Cabral, Glenn Ticlo, Carlos Almeida, Alina Saldanha and Mauvin Godinho – win without Catholic support?
The defeated tall leaders of the BJP – Parsekar, Mandrekar, Parulekar and Arlekar – must accept the blame for the loss as it is they who failed to connect with the voters. The disappointment with these leaders was such that the BJP karyakartas, as well as voters in several constituencies, voted against them. BJP workers, including Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar, believe that the leaders lost because of their attitude and arrogance, which drove away the karyakartas. “It was the defeat of the individuals and not the party,” Parrikar said soon after the results. While these six ministers lost, another – Milind Naik – had a narrow escape winning by a margin of just about 120-odd votes. Similarly, Panjim candidate Siddharth Kuncoliencar cannot boast of his victory which was by just 1000-odd votes in the constituency held by BJP for over two decades.
The number of scams in beach cleaning, land grabbing, Power scam and development against people’s wishes like Tuem Electronic City, Tiracol, Siolim jetty and Chapora beautification were also a few reasons that could be attributed to the mass defeats – not to forget the U-turns of the government on casinos, Regional Plan and MoI. The senior BJP leaders rightly believe that a negative ambience led to the defeat of these leaders.
The party is now on a trouble-shooting mission as the sitting MLAs, besides former legislators, have been asked to respect and develop a strong bond with party workers and the people. At a meeting last month, Parrikar asked party leaders to introspect about why the party fared so badly in the elections while also advising them to ‘connect with the people’.
It is now learnt that BJP leaders will hold get-togethers with their karyakartas in the coming days. In the meantime, the party higher-ups will continue to oversee the situation in each constituency, especially in view of the panchayat elections scheduled in May, followed by the parliamentary polls in 2019. BJP’s poster boy in Goa, Parrikar is now on a damage control mode trying to strengthen the party, but can he succeed after the humiliating loss?
