While the results in Jammu and Kashmir may have little on the street relevance in Goa, barring – if you stretch it – the hordes of shops selling Kashmiri carpets and curios along the north and south coastal belt, it drives home a very sad, desolate message for the Congress, a party that once held sway over Goa and had a substantial role to play in Jammu and Kashmir, as it did in other states.
And with the decimation of the Congress in J&K and in Jharkhand, the more definitive story is the eradication of the Congress from the national political space, in a decisive manner hitherto not known. While the BJP has every right to claim bragging rights and put this down to the Modi factor, it is not quite so, in J&K at least. The BJP has won all its seats from the Jammu region with a 22.8 % vote share. In the Kashmir region it got a mere 1.5 % votes. It is way short of its “Mission 44”,the majority mark. The J&K story is less about BJP’s success because critically speaking it is not. It is the story of Congress’ resounding failure, the silence of the Gandhis, the pathetic public image they now have and the black spot on the ignominious cake – the liability of their non-performing crown prince – Rahul Gandhi.
In J&K, the non BJP vote has gone to the PDP and the National Conference which has 15 plus 2 independent MLAs. In Jharkhand, the anti BJP vote – a very little of it – has gone to the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. The Congress is therefore not even fit to be an opposition in India today, a country which is actually becoming opposition-less.
In state after state, the Congress will be struggling to find some space. In Goa, with just 40 MLAs it is clinging on to an official opposition space, when the real space available – which was once a crevice has now become a huge chasm – is actually an open field. It is in this space where an opposition can be created if there are forces which can act responsibly. The Congress can still be a candidate for that space but it is not a given. As we move rapidly from 2014 to 2016 for a possible assembly election in January 2017, the most interesting political discourse will centre around the claimants of that space and the manner in which the Congress positions itself to take it. While GPCC chief Luizinho Faleiro has set out on the right path of party building, mobilizing the youth and so on, he needs to do it at a pace where the people of Goa feel that this new fully loaded version can play the part of a people controlled space that fulfils public aspirations against the ruling party.
The Aam Aadmi Party has conceded that space and there is no front of fresh thinking independent people which is politically strong enough to field candidates against the BJP and win. That is the test of real opposition. It has to go beyond press releases and conferences and create grass-root candidates who already have or will begin to draw support and build up a base.
The 2017 elections in Goa can have only two possibilities. Another clean decisive sweep of the BJP wiping out all opposition of any sort. Or a real election where people’s unfulfilled aspirations will have a real credible voice, which the Congress of today is clearly not.
And more importantly unlike the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and the PDP, Goa doesn’t even a strong regional party which can win on its own. So there is indeed a lot to play for. All Goa needs is players.
