TEAM HERALD
PANJIM/PONDA: The rather calm political waters of the state are in for a churning. No, it’s not the Panjim by-election, but it’s with an eye on the 2017 assembly polls that groups are strategizing to lift their sagging political fortunes.
With the BJP clearly on the ascendancy in the state and the Congress struggling to find its feet, past political heavyweights and lightweights are jockeying for position, either to brace themselves against the BJP juggernaut or to grab the space originally occupied by the Congress.
Pandurang Raut and Prakash Fadte former political kingmakers – one with the MGP and the other with the BJP – who were craftily sidelined are some of those plotting a comeback. Raut, having failed in his design to marginalize the Dhavalikar brothers and instead got himself sidelined, has aligned with Fadte to form a new party – albeit without too much fanfare.
But the biggest name in the revival of political fortunes is that of former Chief Minister Ravi Naik, who sources say could make a move to the new party formed by Raut and Fadte.
“We have got approval (for the party) and it has even been published in the gazette. We have got a positive response from many sides. We will meet with those who are interested in Goa at the right time. We want to protect Goa. Casual discussions have been held with Ravi Naik. But there have been no formal talks,” Raut told Herald. The party has been named Goa Praja Party.
Naik denies this move to align with friends outside the Congress, insisting he is with the Congress. “These are all rumours. I am very much with the Congress. In fact we took out a huge rally against the government on the Ebola issue,” Naik told Herald, adding, “They have taken 10 rooms and spoken to the local crematorium to cremate bodies in case there was a need.”
The very fact that Naik required a non-issue like Ebola to worm his way into the news has got political pundits raising eyebrows. The rally on Tuesday, a show of strength with some 1,000 people, started from Upper Bazaar, Ponda, wound its way through the town and culminated at old Ponda bus stand, where Naik addressed a meeting.
Naik is not new to political intrigues. He is with the Congress, was the party’s north Goa candidate in the April Lok Sabha election, but has friends in the MGP and the BJP. He is politically important because he takes with him a sizeable section of the Bhandari Samaj vote.
When he broke away from the MGP and joined the Congress in 1991, he dealt the MGP a blow from which it never recovered.
As Naik keeps his cards close to his chest, political analysts are asking what he will do. Will he jump in to consolidate the OBC vote and get the original ‘lion’ supporters back? Or will he back off, deny that there are talks and try to shoulder on in the Congress? The wily politician that he is, Naik probably still has a few tricks up his sleeve before he rides off into the sunset.
