Will the BJP-MGP alliance that swept the polls in the Assembly elections and repeated its performance in the Lok Sabha elections last? Given that the BJP is expected to perform very well in the Maharashtra and Haryana polls, and there are two years for the elections, there is a consensus that however much the local leaders may want it, if there is enough feedback from the rank and file that they can go it alone, the BJP in Goa may well do a Maharashtra and go it alone.
But Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar – at least at this moment – in favour of the alliance and trying hard to keep it intact.
Ponda has been a MGP bastion for a long time. In fact the incumbent Congress MLA Ravi Naik who lost to Lavoo Mamledar was a MGP stalwart before he joined the Congress.
However, for the BJP too Ponda has always been good and besides Parrikar’s Panjim, the taluka supported the BJP sending present Union Tourism Minister Shripad Naik and former speaker Vishwas Satarkar to the Assembly.
The MGP is on record saying that they have started their work in 15-16 constituencies and they have got good support from the people specifically in constituencies like Cumbarjua, Pernem, Mandrem, Bicholim, Mayem, Sankhali, Canacona, Sanguem, Sanvordem and Curchorem.
Pandurang Deepak Dhavalikar is on record telling the media that this alliance would remain for at least 10 years. However, the Shiv Sena–BJP alliance was 25 years old.
And the way that the BJP and MGP local leaders and recent ‘fans’ have been going at each other, it is quite clear that that there is more to the politics behind the clashes than meets the eye.
“The PMC and the local MLA should sit together and resolve the issue in best interest of development of Ponda, but there is no sign of it though the MGP-BJP alliance is ruling the State and at PMC,” says former home minister and long time Ponda MLA Ravi Naik.
First it was the sopo issue and now the Kranti Maidan development; both were local issues. But given the aspirations of the local BJP and MGP workers, the issues got blown out of proportion and the controversies just refuse to go down.
Sources in PMC said that the sopo issue is still not solved and even after the chief minister suggested rollback happened, the vendors (backed by local MGP MLA) are still agitating and not paying sopo to the contractor.
And the chief minister is on the way to Ponda again to try and sort out the Maidan issue even as both sides on record say that they are for the alliance, but also admit that the final decision will come from the BJP high command. Both parties too, express their confidence of fighting alone, if push comes to shove.
Riding on a strong anti-incumbency wave, the BJP-MGP alliance had won 24 seats in the 40-member Goa Legislative Assembly. The BJP won 21 seats while the MGP won three seats.
