Race for Goa CM is open for both principal parties

Team Herald

PANJIM: As D Day is upon Goa and a winner of this electoral battle will be declared 24 hours from now, both the Congress and the BJP have aspirants who may not have thrown their hat in the ring but are certainly waving them for attention.

Much is being read into Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant taking a flight to Delhi to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi after which he said, “I feel that I’ll be given a chance to serve again.” 

At the same time, the Congress leadership race is also not an open and shut case though Digambar Kamat is the front runner. But it all depends on how many seats the Congress gets and how many MLAs it needs to get a majority and most importantly who gets them.

The leadership race when BJP fails to get a simple majority

Another factor that has come is that none of the exit polls have given BJP a clear majority and the likelihood of its falling short by five to six seats or more is a possibility. That is the time the BJP will have to seek the support of the MGP, which it has openly announced. MGP’s Sudin Dhavalikar was quick to respond to this saying he will never support Sawant as Chief Minister.

BJP sources indicate that Health Minister Vishwajit Rane has working behind the scenes to position himself as the CM frontrunner should the party look at a leadership change if the BJP win by a comfortable majority.

One of the party leaders said, “If you fall short, then the parties or MLAs supporting do have a say in who the CM should be. Look at 2017 (when letters of support were not given to the party but to an individual).”

While there are two opinions as well as support and opposition to him, Vishwajit is making his moves and playing his cards both at the State and the Centre. 

But he is not the only frontrunner. Nilesh Cabral, the power minister in the outgoing Sawant government, and Rohan Khaunte, IT minister in the Parrikar government are both working towards getting their candidatures noticed for Chief Ministership. The BJP too is widening its scope of choices. If they fall short and in case it needs to have a different Chief Minister, Chandrakant (Babu) Kavlekar Deputy CM, who defected to the BJP with 10 MLAs has also claimed that after Sawant, he is the front runner.

For Congress, getting the independents will be the main challenge but no one will be untouchable

For Congress, getting the independents, who are likely to win will be the main task. After the counting, no one will be untouchable if they win. The challenge will be to find a leader and a team that will seal the deal since both the main parties will be targeting the same set of independents.

Secondly, Congress should be the first choice for the MGP-TMC combine. Ultimately, it boils down to who will negotiate with, especially the MGP. This will be a key factor. If Dhavalikar acts according to the expected lines, then the Congress’ chances of forming the government improve drastically if the MGP gets between four to five seats.

In any scenario when other parties and MLAs must be roped in, Michael Lobo comes into the picture. When it was earlier thought that Kamat will be the obvious choice – and that may still be the case – the Michael Lobo factor has come into play. Lobo has friends across parties.

As one of the panelists in a recent political debate said, “After elections, everyone is a freelancer and MLAs will make their own decisions for themselves.” This will also determine how the choices for the next Chief Minister will narrow down.