Calangute MLA Michael Lobo is increasingly turning into the Mauvin Godinho of the BJP. He dons BJP colours, has officially not deserted the party, but has chosen to speak out openly and directly against five ministers of his party’s government after being clearly sidelined by a section of powerful ministers. In a manner reminiscent of Congress MLA’s Mauvin Godinho’s blatant opposition to his own party, Lobo has chosen to take on his party, realising that the BJP can ill afford to expel him from the party at the fag end of its term. While he has not named which of the five ministers who should be dropped from the Parsekar cabinet, it is not secret that at least three of them are Dilip Parulekar (Tourism Minister), Dayanand Mandrekar(Water Resources Minister) and Alina Saldanha (RDA minister).
It is no secret that Lobo nurtured ambitions of he becoming a minister and his unfulfilled desire has played a part in this rebellion. During the tenure of Manohar Parrikar as Chief Minister, Lobo enjoyed unlimited access and managed to get all his constituency work done. That honeymoon got virtually over when Parsekar became Chief Minister. Still Lobo managed to by-pass the state and lobbied with Parrikar in Delhi to clear crucial projects. In fact, the Saligao Garbage treatment plant was his pet project till Messers Parulekar and Parrikar usurped credit completely.
Lobo’s rebellion could take the same road as Mauvin’s. And like the situation the Dabolim MLA finds himself in, Lobo too may have desires of being backed by non-BJP parties, but fulfilling those desires could have an altogether different challenge of their own. In the manner in which the MGP is blocking Godinho in Dabolim, the Congress will not give Calangute on a platter to Lobo.
But this will cause other worries for the BJP. In many constituencies in North Goa, sitting BJP MLAs, or those independents initially backed by the BJP, are looking towards charting their own course. Lobo, as yet, seems to be the only BJP MLA sounding the bugle of rebellion but his threat needs to be taken on board, since he has the money power to go solo.
This is no way, underlines his success but what it does underline is BJP’s failure to keep a united party inspite of getting a clear unequivocal majority. While anti-incumbency does set in and affects many ruling parties, the BJP failure ironically, has been its unintentional aping of the Congress way of functioning during the Digambar Kamat government. This is when each minister worked for himself and not the party.
With the absence of a strong leader to take charge of the campaign and with government functioning, literally hostage to Manohar Parrikar, it is unable to maximize the advantages of power. And with half the cabinet or more consisting of non-functioning, utterly inefficient ministers, it is becoming increasingly difficult for ruling party MLAs to go and justify their party’s performance to their voters.Which is why even a soft rebellion is heard so loudly.
