In the last Assembly elections, the Congress through their lethargy, invited defeat from the jaws of victory despite having greater numbers and thus having been the single largest party that should have formed the government. This lapse was very costly and led to the present state of affairs. Learning from this costly lapse and reinforcing itself, it should for the 2022 Assembly elections align with the Opposition parties in a seat sharing and pre-poll alliance with the Nationalist Congress Party, the Goa Forward Party (GFP), MGP so as to prevent splitting of votes and joining in a unified Opposition alliance.
The Congress should remember that the 10 rebels who joined the BJP threw all their loyalty and party affiliations to the wind as well as were not disqualified as should have been the case as per the Constitution. The GFP should not forget that they were snubbed and shunted out of power. It’s time that they struck back. To strengthen their cause, they have to seek seat sharing alliances with all the Opposition parties. GFP has even parted ways with the NDA and thus it is logical that they should seek unity with the Opposition to further their quest for a taste of victory and vengeance.
The MGP too should not forget that a major split was engineered in the party which let two of its MLAs joining the marriage of convenience to support the BJP, Congress rebels and their two disloyal MLAs. The Opposition together with the NCP had accounted for 17+3+3+1=24 MLAs in the previous elections and if the support this time of those in the losing constituencies were added up, then these four parties together have support from the voters that will be difficult not to triumph.
The Cong & the MGP should also draw inspiration from the fact that their MLAs who have defected under the pretext of joining the BJP so as to carry on development works of their constituencies have betrayed their allegiances and on the contrary have not developed their constituencies.
These four parties have to exploit the misgovernance of Goa by the present dispensation and take maximum advantage of the disenchantment of the people of Goa over several issues such as bad roads, coal pollution, opposition to the three linear infra projects, at Mollem, deteriorating law and order situation in the State, the sidelining of the traditional fishermen, coastal laws that are detrimental to Goans, the mining issues, lack of measures to control flooding in Goa, inflation due to exorbitant rise in prices of petrol and diesel, burden on common men due to rise in LPG prices amongst others. It would be in the fitness of things that the Goencho Avaaz Party, the Goa Revolutionary Party, the Shiv Sena as well as the Aam Aadmi Party which is averse to political alignment should see the light and not to go their separate ways in the common interest of dislodging the BJP from power.
Lessons should be learnt of the unity of at least 19 political parties at the Centre which are uniting on Sept 20 in a show of Opposition strength. Lamenting over splitting of votes later can thus definitely be avoided and mend mistakes that were made in the last Assembly polls. Cohesive finding of common ground would be better than repenting.
