There were ten of them who would have not been within miles of the State Assembly leave alone being in it if they had not contested on an anti-BJP platform in the 2017 elections. Most of them were from South Goa and many of them were relatively new, some fresh, who won on Congress tickets. Then on July 10, 2019, ten of them, many from constituencies that have never elected a BJP MLA, defected to the BJP without even consulting their voters or their workers.
In the history of political betrayals, this was the biggest
No opposition party, nor the people reacted to this murder of democracy. This is worse than murder of a human being. This is a murder of the foundation and principle of parliamentary democracy. A half-hearted attempt was made to justify this full-blooded murder by saying that these MLAs went for “development”. Have they done development that has benefited the people? If that was so why is
there such a huge resentment against these very MLAs now, so much so that many of them are wanting to fight as Independents? But even here there is little or no chance of them winning.
Only the BJP wants to have a political thing going and planning to make some of them contest as Independents
The BJP cannot to afford to give most of them, if not all, tickets. Yet they do not have any alternative candidates in those seats, mainly in South Goa and specifically in Salcette. So, in a supposed clever ploy, they are pushing these same defection-tainted MLAs to fight as independents.
So just imagine, even the ruling BJP is not confident of giving them tickets and feel that will get more votes as independent candidates than as BJP candidates. There is no doubt about this since Chief Minister Pramod Sawant told locals of Nuvem that their MLA Wilfred D’Sa may not be with the BJP and contest as an Independent but he would support the BJP later.
Voters cannot be taken for granted any longer BEWARE of INDEPENDENTS
No party should assume that they can fool the voters repeatedly. The BJP – or any other party – cannot just think that they can field candidates without any symbol, trick the people into believing that the candidate is truly Independent and if by chance he wins, absorb him into the BJP once again by fooling the people yet again. It will make a sea of Independents contest across the state. Look how shameless politics has become.
Herald will join hands with every Goan who opposes any kind of political support or induction of any defector into any party
Your paper has a clear stand. Defectors cannot get tickets. And if they do in any shape or form, Herald will join hands with people to oppose them and expose them further. Defectors are playing with the spirit of democracy. Herald will oppose and stop, this game.
Yes, absolute political untouchability has to be practiced against defectors because they are betrayers. They have betrayed not just their parties, but their land and their people. Herald will never be with them and will oppose any party which deals with defectors.
No party should even think of taking a single defector in to the party, forget giving a ticket
Any non-BJP formation that even considers or hobnobs with a single defector should surrender their campaign and simply go away. The people of Goa are hurt and angry. They feel betrayed and they will not spare anyone who tries to legitimize their betrayal and get them through the back door. And these are the questions they will ask.
– Will the defector even think about the people of villages or towns or about himself?
– Will he take decisions on Goa’s development or his own development?
– Will he honestly ask the government questions on issues concerning Goa like pollution,
jobs, health, environment?
– Will he stand with the people when they take to the streets to fight for their rights?
From what we have seen so far, the answer to each of the above questions, in all the cases will be no.
Defectors should be untouchable. That’s the only way defections will stop. And parties must have the strength not to talk to them
Any party which is serious about teaching defectors a lesson and totally eradicating them from the political system must make an open declaration that anybody who has left the party on whose ticket he/she has won and continues to be an MLA of another party will not be entertained in any party
Ultimately, let us all step back and ask ourselves, do we need this mess. Is it good for Goa? Deal-making defectors can only be stopped if their political ambitions laced with greed are nipped in the bud, just don’t let them find any political space. Let us see which party performs the best on this.
