Out of the 1,825 days of one five-year term of the BJP in the centre we are down to between the last 120 to 150 days of its term, while Goa has only two MPs there are visible signs that the Congress, barring its lip-service about taking on the BJP, is totally in the clutches of people who have not served the party but dealt with it.
Everyone in the Goa Congress wakes up a few months even days before the election and starts the mad race of individuals to get the party ticket, not for the sake of the party but to ensure that the process of getting the ticket- and even more so if they are successful- as a lucrative exercise in personal development.
The Congress has no organisation but an organised system to keep BJP in power
The Congress in Goa has no organisation to speak of, with no frontal organisations which even pretend to function, with no strong leadership that the entire party respects and trusts- so much so that it’s not even clear who the leadership consists of. But it has fly-by-night ticket aspirants who want to contest the Lok Sabha elections without doing an iota of work to revive the party organisation and its connection with the people. What gives these so-called leaders, the birthright to declare themselves candidates and seek the people’s mandate for a party they have actually done nothing for?
Goans have been betrayed repeatedly by those who fix and deal
In Goa, there are many old timers who at one point in time did not see a political world beyond the Congress. The connection between the people and this party was tied to the heartstrings of farmers, fisherfolk and ordinary Goans who held their heads high with pride. The Congress no longer tugs at those heartstrings because those who officially represent the Congress have done deeds and alleged political deals that no genuine Goan would associate with.
Can anyone ever justify coming to terms to terms with repeated mass defections of Congress MLAs, after taking oaths of never betraying the people? The betrayers are not only those who defected but also those who allowed the defections to happen under their watch like Chodankar. And yet continues to try and play a “leading role” in a film which is going nowhere, with a script tailored to suit the ruling dispensation.
In any case party ideology and principles don’t come in the way of “dealing” with elections
What can be more clearly evident than the declaration of former Bichiolim MLA Naresh Sawal that he would continue the elections either on a BJP or a Congress ticket while he continues to be a member of the MG Party?
Girish Chodankar, who has lost every election he has contested para drops himself on the ticket, in a complete deviation from the policy of consensus and building grass-root leadership. The question that genuine Congressmen ask is how can an evergreen electoral loser, claim a ticket as his birthright?
The Congress presence in the electoral fray in Goa appears to be merely a platform to help BJP. In 2017, Luizinho Faleiro who led the party to victory and on the doorstep of forming a government was pushed aside and in a two-phase game plan, the BJP was allowed to form a government followed by the party contributing its MLAs through defections to further strengthen the BJP government. After Luizinho Faleiro’s side-lining it was again Chodankar in charge. At the same time, the architect under whose watch the BJP converted a massive election loss into a win was none other than Digvijaya Singh.
Six years later, the very same Digvijaya Singh along with Kamal Nath was given charge of Madhya Pradesh where public sentiment seemed to either be divided or moving away from the BJP. The Nath-Singh duo supervised what turned out to be a disastrous campaign where a close fight was converted into a debacle. Who benefited? Yet again the BJP. And this has become a consistent pattern. The presence of the two former MP Chief Ministers Kamal Nath and Digvijaya Singh at the post-counting press conference licking the wounds of defeat, was not just a picture of surrender. It was a picture of not being in the fight at all and ceding ground to the ruling party.
The same pattern of side-lining good experienced leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia, quitting the party out of frustration has become routine. Sachin Pilot is still with the Congress in Rajasthan but the virtual shunting of an important energetic leader helped the Congress in Rajasthan. The Congress could have stopped the revolving door of Rajasthan politics.
It’s clear, no party is bringing any revolution
The Revolutionary Goans, as the record and data show did enough to give BJP as many as ten seats due to vote splitting in the last elections, is not a party which is fighting in the panchayats and municipalities. The so-called “supremo” Manoj Parab has declared that RG would contest both the North and South Goa seats.
Has his party endorsed this? Won’t this split votes, which is exactly what the BJP wants? And if there is at all political opposition alliance, the RG head- seemingly in his capacity- is pre-empting its failure in Goa. Does Parab think that the Congress will step back and let RG contest because of his candidature crushes the chances of opposition unity six months before the elections?
If the election is about having a one-to-one contest to challenge the BJP, these moves are designed to make that project fail. Is that RG’s project?
The people of Goa want an honest opposition, one that is fighting to genuinely win. The confidence that a strong united opposition, with people’s leaders, fighting a do-or-die conscience-ridden battle, is not there among the people.
The Congress as the main opposition party can at least correct this by overhauling the party, simply rejecting those who have sacrificed the party’s interest and bringing in tried and tested leaders who have led the party to victory in the last with track record of winning elections.
In Telangana, Revanth Reddy emerged as the honest face who wanted to out the KCR government. And he did so as he had a free hand and caught the imagination of the young and old, who wanted the Congress back.
Most importantly, Revanth Reddy realised this was an election, not a party auction and he fought to win it. The Congress in Goa and elsewhere must learn this.
