Party politics and party infighting has now reared its ugly head at the Zilla Panchayat (ZP) level. With the ZP polls being fought on party lines for the first time in the State, intra-party politics is suddenly scoring over other issues in the run-up to the campaign. There are three parties fielding candidates in this election and they are all in alliance. The rest of the field is being made up of Independents. Yet, for the alliance the test, even before the campaign actually begins, is entirely from within.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), though it tried hard through the weekend and even on Monday, was not able to dissuade its rebels from contesting the elections. It may have been able to contain to a certain extent the damage being able to bring back to the fold some of the supporters of the rebels, but the intra-party fighting over the weekend was obvious and does not augur well for the party that has always prided itself for its discipline and that of its members.
When the BJP-led government decided sometime in January to have the ZP polls on party lines and met with opposition from the other political parties, it may not have expected that its own party members would revolt if not given party tickets. It couldn’t have, as its members have rarely rebelled openly, but this time it has been different. The dissidence in the BJP has drawn even more notice as the only parties that are contesting the election on the party symbol are those in government. The other political parties like the Congress, that are more prone to dissidence, have refrained from fielding candidates on the party symbol.
Looking, therefore, at this upcoming election analytically, the biggest challenge that the BJP is facing is coming from within. The resignations of its members have exposed the chinks in the party and proved that the BJP members are also open to being poached or to dissent. At least three candidates in the fray are party members who have quit the BJP to contest the elections. Two of those who quit the party and entered the ZP fray were block presidents. While one is contesting against the official BJP candidate, two others are contesting against the alliance partner Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) candidate.
For the disciplined BJP, whose members follow a certain ideology and that has not often seen such dissidence from its core members, the developments will deal a huge blow. Very rarely have the party’s longtime members quit to contest against the party. Past instances of any rebellion from BJP members has come from such members who had joined the party seeking to share the spoils of victory, or as was seen in the months prior to the 2012 Legislative Assembly elections, of members who were promised tickets by the Congress. The difference is that, at that point of time the BJP was in opposition, while now it is in power. Few people quit a party that is in power to contest against it. They will do so only if they are certain that they will be better off on the other side. Is this saying something about the state of the BJP?
The firefighting that the BJP leaders engaged in over the weekend is not just to bring back the dissidents to the fold, but to save the party from such moves in the future. If today the party allows its members to quit without any effort to stop them, it could lead to a demoralizing effect on those in the party.
Another setback for the ruling alliance, that is also fighting the ZP polls unitedly, is in Benaulim where the Goa Vikas Party has not put up a candidate but instead has decided to sit on the sidelines and watch whether its local MLA’s nominee who is contesting as an Independent wins. The GVP has actually challenged its MLA to get his nominee elected. This is rather strange, for the GVP party supremo is not known to sit back and let another wrest the lead in a challenge. That GVP’s two MLAs are not seeing eye-to-eye has been pretty obvious for the last few months, but the Benaulim MLA’s act amounts to dissidence and merits action.
While there appears to be an interesting tussle on the cards this ZP election, BJP could be already ruing its decision to have the polls on party symbols.
