MARGAO: Political analysts question the role of D’Souza in the events that played out that saw Gonzaco protest against the chief officer for acting only against him to later submit his resignation and then withdraw the same while pointing fingers at councillor Arthur D’Silva. It was D’Silva group that had backed Gonzaco to the chair and had publicly stated that Gonzazo had over stayed the seat sharing arrangement and it was his turn to step down. However, not only did Gonzaco lose the no confidence motion with the majority of those who voted against him belonging to D’Silva’s group, Gonzaco was then quickly in favour of D’Silva being elected as the next chairperson.
“The role of the deputy chief minister has to be scrutinized. Was this a case of quid pro quo where the urban development minister stays the demolition notice only for Gonzaco to then join the same team of councillors he accused of wanting him to quit,” said independent MLA Vijai Sardesai
Sardesai went a step further and accused D’Souza of being part of a larger conspiracy to block any development of the MMC in order to ensure the blame for lack of development finally falls on the three opposition MLAs.
It maybe be further recalled that it was the same group of ruling councillors that had extended their support to the BJP candidate for the Lok Sabha elections in the presence of Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on the eve of election, for the ‘development of the town.’ The ruling group of councillors has enjoyed the support of the government ever since the BJP was elected to power and former chief minister Digambar Kamat-backed Sushila Naik lost her seat when the Congress lost the elections.
While the BJP leaders chose to deny any charge of their influence in the decision of transferring Naveen L S and that it was the decision of the personal department, their detractors countered stating that former urban development minister Joaquim ALemao was always blamed by the BJP for alleged biased transfers of chief officers.
The BJP may be having the last political laugh, but the show never ends in politics. These laughs are hollow as Margao suffers its worst spell of political non-development.
