The BJP-MGP alliance which endures, albeit with difficulty, in the rest of the state, is a bitter no holds rivalry in the temple town of Ponda and neigbouring villages and constituencies of Priol and Madcaim.
If familiarity breeds contempt, nowhere does this play out as politically as in Ponda, where the divide between two parties, supposedly ideologically close, is brazen. And in the forthcoming municipal elections, this is going to be played out in a fierce manner which will soar temperatures.
In the Assembly elections, the parties fought against each other, with the MGP and the BBSM joining hands to defeat the BJP. It is clear that though that project wasn’t quite successful it did manage to cause defeats of heavyweight BJP candidates.
In fact when former Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar decided to drop the Dhavalikar brothers from his cabinet, setting off a chain of events which led to both parties going their own way in the elections, the Ponda block of the BJP welcomed the decision. The Ponda block also dared MGP to contest the elections without an alliance. This is exactly what happened. Lavoo Mamlatdar and Deepak Dhavalikar both lost the elections with Congress and an independent winning in Ponda and Priol.
Ponda’s case is unique. It is here that that an otherwise rare sighting of the BJP and the Congress takes place. It is also the only place where the BJP does not have an issue with the Congress winning as long as the MGP is kept in check. The rivalry is not just bitter but it’s all out there, where the Congress, at least overtly, has no groundswell of support.
Importantly, even someone like Sudin Dhavalikar, has to do tightrope walking when it comes to Ponda where he is neither a senior minister of a CAC member but simply their local MLA. Notwithstanding his closeness to Union Shipping Minister Nitin Gadkari, he is in no position to get closer to the BJP, because of the Ponda factor. Ponda does weigh many people in and there is pressure on Sudin Dhavlikar to retain and preserve MGP’s identity.
It is only because of the intensity of the BJP-MGP Ponda conflict that it remains to be seen which way the MGP will go, not just in the PMC elections but throughout.
The BJP, which is the big brother in this alliance, it needs to take the coalition forward, by patching up the rivalries. Otherwise it will pull in all directions, which no one is quite ready for.
In this scenario, it is the Congress which will benefit in the conflict zone, if there is no third alternative as it did in Ponda Assembly. While it has done little to make inroads a bitter infighting will lead to vote splitting and the emergence of the Congress.
Therefore the forthcoming elections to the Ponda Municipal Council is not about who will become the new city fathers, but will establish the roadmap of the future alliance or the breakdown of it. And this in turn will play a big role in the shaping of future political combinations in the state.
