The decision of the Central Committee of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party candidate for the Rajya Sabha and stay away from the by-elections in Panjim and Valpoi is definitely not a surprise. What choice did it have? As part of the coalition government, this was expected from the party whose current survival on the ruling benches hinges on it not tilting the balance of power in the State Assembly away from the BJP.
After having cornered some plum portfolios of Public Works, Tourism, Transport and Sports for its two ministers; and the Goa State Infrastructure Development Corporation for its MLA who has not been inducted into the cabinet, the MGP could not turn its back on the BJP in the Rajya Sabha elections or the by-polls as it would be jeopardising its own future. The Party President did say that not contesting the by-polls was in the interest of the stability of the government. Besides, with three MLAs, it does not have the numbers to have a Rajya Sabha MP of its own.
Yet, MGP at the same time has said that it will contest the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and field candidates in both the constituencies on its symbol. This decision, the party asserted, arose from the response that the Central Committee got from its members. The possibility of MGP winning a Lok Sabha seat is, however, remote. During the years it was in power soon after Liberation and up to the 1980s, MGP dominated the Lok Sabha polls winning at least the North Goa seat consistently until 1980. MGP’s decision to contest the Lok Sabha polls is, however, not to win, but to retain its vote share.
The party President did say that it got just 11 percent of the vote share in the February 2017 polls, and rued the alliance the party entered into with the Shiv Sena and Goa Suraksha Manch, saying that on its own it could have got up to 20 percent of the share. While it will not capture that kind of a vote in the Lok Sabha polls – perhaps not even 11 percent – entering the fray in 2019 keeps the party alive and in the minds of the electorate, and this recall value is important for Goa’s oldest regional party, as with just two candidates it can reach out to all 40 constituencies, which was not possible in the Assembly elections.
MGP’s political playground for long has remained the State Assembly, with the Parliament having slipped out of its grasp long years ago, once it changed from being the party in government to the principal opposition party to merely a regional party with limited influence in certain pockets in the State. Unlike regional parties in other States which besides dominating at home also manage to win Parliamentary seats, MGP though still a force in State politics, has not been able to play a role at the National level. The last time it did play any such role was when Ramakant Khalap, as MGP’s North Goa MP, was inducted into the Union Ministry and given the Law portfolio.
The party that once dominated the political scene in Goa has of late been winning just three seats, restricted to Ponda taluka, except for the last election when it spread its influence to the North and South, picking up two seats outside the taluka, but not going beyond the figure of three. The party has crossed half a century in age and has to re-launch if it wants to survive in the Goan political milieu, particularly if it wants to take that step to playing a bigger role. Merely contesting elections will not help. It needs to re-invent itself.
