The BJP’s political strategy department must have thought long and hard before pulling off the quiet coup of the delimitation exercise for the Zilla Parishad elections and the move to conduct them on party lines.
Many within the BJP also struggle to find logic in the exercise as villages are becoming mini political conflict zones with its new cesspool of aspirants and hopefuls within the party. What the party feels will be a muscle flexing exercise, which will lead to bragging rights, as the ruling party is set to win in the absence of any organisational strength of the Congress, may well boomerang on them. As one BJP MLA said “In victory will lie our defeat”
The dynamics are strange but significant. The delimitations and reservations may have affected some opposition presence in certain areas, but when party symbols are allotted by the BJP to its candidates, it becomes easy for those who have lost out to contest as independents. This will create mini camps within villages among BJP members and it is these rivalries which last longer than the elections. The residue of hate and disgrunt element will run deep and have an impact on the 2017 assembly elections. These have already begun. For instance, Porvorim, Saligao and Calangute will now be called Socorro and reserved for a lady OBC candidate much to the chagrin of Calangute MLA Michael Lobo who will surely field his own independent candidates against the official party ones.
Another example. St Lawrence (Agacaim), held by Antonio Silveira, brother of ex-MLA Francis Silveira has been reserve for Scheduled Tribe candidates. This will also result in other shifts and even intra party rivalries.
The BJP used its power to bulldoze the State Election Commissioner to push through the de-limitations and the schedule of the elections which were declared in such a hurry that there was no time for anyone to go to Court.
The Congress though seems to have come up with a bit of a delayed master stroke. It is contemplating not fielding candidates on the party symbol, defying the BJP’s decision to have the elections on party lines. The BJP has already cried foul accusing the Congress of running away from battle but the Congress can well say that this wasn’t supposed to be a battle at all and hence they are not in it.
The Congress should play smart by not doing anything at all here but wait and watch the inherent contradictions in the BJP come to the fore. It can however thorough independent candidates they support, keep pegging away at the promises of the BJP government which have not been met and use the elections as a proxy testing ground to check the traction each of the bread and butter issues, like the absence of a Regional Plan and others, have among the grass root electorate. The ZP elections can be a good warm up tournament for the Congress with no expectations and no accountability at stake.
The BJP, without Manohar Parrikar seems to be making strategic blunders. The manner of going ahead with the Zilla Parishad elections is a big one. It can still pull back, reassess and decide to hold them the way they were always held. If there is a single sensible mind in the BJP think tank, it should advise the party to cut its losses and prevent irreparable damage to a presently harmonious grass root cadre.
