The last few weeks have witnessed a tsunami of party changes. MLAs have resigned and left parties and joined new ones. New alliances have been forged with the unlikeliest and unexpected. At this juncture, it is important for every Goan looking at the future to ask oneself some important questions, which will perhaps help him or her in making the right choices.
There has been a melee of MLAs leaving and joining/merging with other parties. Firstly, Ravi Naik the Congress MLA from Ponda resigned and joined BJP. In the last fortnight alone Rohan Khaunte and Jayesh Salgaocar joined the BJP, the first an Independent MLA and the latter from GFP. Then Alina Saldanha quit the BJP and joined AAP, while Churchill Alemao merged the NCP legislature wing with TMC while Alexio Reginaldo Lourenco left the Congress and is likely to join the TMC. And the list of others, many of whom were prospective candidates of different parties who have jumped ship to other parties is also long.
Election campaigns are about parties, but the future of Goa is about you
For political parties, election is a number game and a seat game. Their interest is one – to get the maximum number of winning seats to form a government. So, every move regarding the movement of MLAs and others and of political alliances is calculative and opportunistic.
For the common man and woman in Goa, elections are about making a difference to their lives, their empowerment, their jobs, and earnings, about the education of their children, about Goa’s identity, and about control over their land and resources among many other issues.
Ultimately, the right candidate for him or her is the one who will fight for the same things and fulfill the hopes and expectations of the common Goan. And they must decide if candidates, including the ones who are shifting parties do that for them. It is also important for them to ask and get that confidence from their candidates that they will not shift parties and alliances and be true to the mandate that they have received from the people, based on which party platform or alliance they committed to before the elections.
They must also ask. Why do politicians change parties? Is it because of greed or opportunity or both? Or is it because their parties have failed to deliver to the people? But in that case, the people have to ask if the party they are going to, will deliver better. They must ask each time what the real reason for a party change was. Was it also because of certain decisions of their parties that would hurt the MLAs future interests? One can wonder and ask if Aleixo Reginaldo Lourenco left the Congress due to the recent announcement of a Congress-Goa Forward Party tie-up.
At a time when future movements from one party to the other are expected, the people of Goa have a greater responsibility. To see through each move and decide whether it is in the direction of political opportunism or whether it is for the good of the common Goan. It is this decision that should govern a voter’s choice as he visits the polling booth on polling day.
