Trouble spots increase for BJP in South Goa
The men from the woods and the hills and the marginal fringes of Goa, threaten to make the BJP realise how much it has missed the wood for the trees in this election. Once staunch allies, the tribals of Goa, mainly the Gawdis and Velips, have taken the electoral plunge in a wave of discontent and hurt against the BJP, whose Chief Minister Parrikar had stood with them during the Balli agitation and riots between them and the local Desais on May 25 2011
UTAA leader Govind Gawde, who along with Molu Velip was taken into judicial custody after the riots has decided to contest the polls from South Goa, a huge blow to the BJP in the Canacona and Quepem area. Adding to the BJP’s disastrous Sunday, was the induction (and the hasty exit) of Pramod Muthalik Chief of the Sri Ram Sene whose grandest political achievement has been dragging young women from bars in Mangalore and thrashing them. A worried Parrikar was quick to tell President Rajnath Singh that the move would backfire and Muthalik was out of the BJP in five hours after he was in. But his lurking presence and the attempt itself has done enough damage to the BJP in Goa where Muthalik threatened to enter and stop bars and other assorted forms of revelry.
While the Muthalik flirtation will polarize fence sitters who are contemplating ditching the BJP, and give Congress a handle to play the communal card with more vigour, Govind Gawdes decision to contest will give the BJP greater worries as this upsets their electoral math in real terms.
The tribals, especially their parent organisation UTAA, votes en block and these votes were considered a solid block for the BJP. But the drifting away of the UTAA from the BJP should be a cause immense tension for the BJP.
The Government’s denial of permission to UTAA to organise a massive tribal convention at Ponda on March 30, to mark the tenth anniversary of the organisation was the last straw that broke the relationship. UTAA leader Prakash Velip was scathing, as he said that the government had failed to utilise the tribal sub plan with seventy percent funds unspent in the last financial year. There are serious rumblings that the 12 point set of demands of which 11 were agreed upon have not been fulfilled to the fullest.
But most importantly is the emotional hurt, the tribals say, they have felt with past incidents like the publication of a controversial poem “gawdi” which apparently insulted the gawdi community. The poem, in a book published by the Madhavrao Dhavlikar trust controlled by the Dhavlikar brother ministers, evoked sharp reactions from the community.
The UTAA has a block of 20,000 votes in South Goa and even if 70% vote and vote as a block, it could be the critical game changer.
Meanwhile, even thinking of drafting a man like Muthalik into the BJP will be disaster in Goa. While attacking the pub in Mangalore this is what Muthalik’s Ram Sene hoodlums had said:
Why should girls go to pubs? Are they going to serve their future husbands alcohol? Should they not be learning to make chapattis. Bars and pubs should be for men only.
The entire fundamental of Modis campaign of making India a country safe for women is turned on its head with footage of Muthalik being embraced in the BJP fold beaming across households. The severe reaction on social media by Goans was enough for the Chief Minister to be worried.
For the Congress, the minor issue of Churchill Alemao’s resignation was consigned to the dustbin of insignificance, with talks of a truce between Sardinha and Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco, with the proposal of fielding son Shalom in the Curtorim by-election if Reginaldo becomes an MP. This is a good mature move and should pave the way for other forces to consolidate behind the Congress. And by the way, if the NCP and the Congress become friends again in Goa, it will seal the deal in spirit for the Congress.
