Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) has walked off with an assurance from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) that all its issues will be addressed within the next 20 days. MGP’s list of issues is long and includes the mining crisis, collapse of the administration, leadership in the State, fish crisis and sand mining, but ironically does not include the one issue that led to the meeting between the leaders of the two parties to iron out differences – the crux of the petition that the MGP has filed in the High Court. MGP has an answer to that, when it says that their petition is not aimed at any party, but an attempt to bring an end to frequent defections.
While accepting that the explanation proffered by the regional party may be valid, there is no denying that the fissures in the ruling coalition have widened and deepened in the past few days, and while governance continues to slumber, BJP which is the main party in the coalition government, now has another task to attend to – regaining the trust of the allies. That is something the BJP will have to work on immediately if it hopes to hold on to the numbers in the Assembly and save the government. It is quite early in the term and keeping the allies together for another three years and a few months will be an unenviable task. Especially since every ally has in the past days raised its voice against the government, with MGP taking it to a different level and actually making good its threat.
And it’s a threat from a quarter that the BJP would not have expected. The main party in the government admits that this move of the MGP has stirred uneasiness amongst the other coalition partners, but was resolute in the decision not to ask the regional party to withdraw the petition it has just filed. But there could be a veiled warning too, when BJP says that the MGP is worried it may lose its MLAs in the manner in which Congress lost two of theirs. Against this backdrop the weeks ahead are going to be interesting in the political field. It is already been a month since Subhash Shirodkar and Dayanand Sopte quit their membership of the Assembly, which leaves another five months before the by-elections for the two seats need to be held. And the news is not good for the BJP.
What’s being played out in the State is the politics of opportunism that is being taken to new levels as Goa remains leaderless, rudderless and clueless. MGP has a list of issues that need to be attended to. It is a pertinent list that can be added to, but does the government of which MGP is an important constituent have the time to attend to the issues? As long as the focus of the parties remains on politics and one-upmanship, all issues of State will be shifted to the backburner. Before long, the same attention is going to turn to the by-polls and BJP will have to put in every effort to win the seats.
For, if the defections were executed seamlessly and took the parent party by surprise, the re-election of the candidates is not going to be without some serious concerns as the by-polls are not going to be a cakewalk for the BJP candidates. Not only will the BJP face a wounded opposition looking to redeem itself in the eyes of the people, but one of its own allies is prepping to contest the polls in one seat, and a former staunch supporter a possible candidate in another seat, where it former chief minister is showing open signs of revolt. The news is definitely not good for the BJP.
