Politics is very illogical in Goa. As most other States gravitate from national parties to regional parties in the belief that they would best look after their local interests, in Goa the opposite has been the trend.
From very strong regional parties –the United Goans Party and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party that dominated the initial years after Liberation, today State politics is dominated by national parties that have managed to consign the regional parties to the role as bit players.
The regional parties today are used by large national parties to break the votes of their rivals in strategic manner so that their candidates can win.
Logically an alliance between regional parties would see them ruling the State. Historically the UG had dominated South – specifically the heartland, while the MGP dominated the hinterland talukas.
But many in the MGP complain that logical allies in South Goa refused to have anything with the party even preferring to join hands with the BJP as it happened this time.
MGP supporters and leadership quoting, the words of the first prime Jawaharlal Nehru who said “ajeeb hai Goa ke log” (Goans are strange)- say that they see what probably made him say it and express their confusion on the attitude of people in South Goa. They also wondered why whenever any talk of an alliance comes up the bogey of the merger issue and joining with Maharashtra is brought up.
According to MGP sources, for the party the merger issue is long over and there is absolutely no going back on the decision. So instead of being bitter foes – probably due to language and vested interests, the only way for regional forces to have a say in the State is if they get over the MGP’s past and move forward on finding common ground.
But now this space has been usurped by the Congress in the South while the BJP has taken up the MGP space in the North and elsewhere.
Most of the Congress MLAs –past and present in the North,– be it Ramakant Khalap in Pernem, Ravi Naik in Ponda or Pratapsing Rane in Sattari, Pandurang Madkaikar or ex-Congressman Dayanand Narvekar in Aldona are former MGP stalwarts.
After Congress was rejuvenated in Goa after meetings between Dr Wilfred D’Souza and Babu Naik with Indira Gandhi who had just broken the Congress and formed the Congress (I) in 1980, some MGP members Pratapsing Rane, Dilkush Desai, Dayanand Narvekar and Shashikala Kakodkar herself joined the Congress. Kakodkar however returned to the MGP now taken over by Khalap.
Thereafter the fight for Goa’s political pie became a bi-party battle between the Congress and the MGP. However, constant defections to the Congress including that of Ravi Naik and later Khalap broke the back of the MGP. The diehards from the formerly soft Hindu party slowly shifted allegiance to the BJP and the latter’s fortunes started rising after 1994 grand alliance.
Today, the MGP is left with almost nothing and the BJP has just scored a majority on its own, making the MGP almost redundant to Goan politics.
