A year ago, on a typical morning at the Mahalakshmi temple at Bandora, the home of Sudin Dhavlikar, he was among his devotees. Hundreds who throng his temple home with applications and requests for jobs or for work to be done in their village or at home. We managed to get him there, since fixing an appointment with Sudin Dhavlikar is getting a rare annual event, if at all. As the conversation went on, he did give the first signs of his ambitions, justified or otherwise. I have ten years more in active politics. Is it wrong to have ambitions of becoming Chief Minister”. And then he revealed how many seats he really wanted. “26 is the figure. I know it will be difficult, but you will see. We will end up contesting so many seats in whichever way”
Do note this was when Subhash Velingkar was too was on the same side as him, BBSM has still not fallen out completely with the government, the Goa Suraksha Manch was not even a germinating seed, but that was always the ambition. It is as clear as daylight that Sudin Dhavlikar is in no mood to allow BJP to play big brother by cutting his final ambition for the top job. And he realised it in 2015, that as long as he is under the tutelage of big brother’. Secondly, for Sudin, he is in a fight to retain his symbol and registration. And for that he needs to win over 3 seats and get a percentage of votes.
At the same time there is a bitter reality of the BJP MGP relationship. They have never been natural allies or friends. It has been a relationship of convenience right from day one. And bickering has been a constant companion in their journey. Before the 2000 elections, two of BJP stalwarts ( both of whom are no more, Pramod Majahan and Gopinath Munde) cane to campaign for the party and the alliance of BJP and MGP. At that time a truck load of BJP supporters went to t venue where the two leaders were staying and shouted slogans against them- their senior national leaders. The miffed leaders walked out, vowing not to come to Goa again to campaign.
In 1994, the BJP “backstabbing” of MGP was evident. In the December elections MGP got 12 seats, the BJP 4, Independents 3 and the Churchill Alemao UGDP got 3. Together they had enough to form a MGP led government. The BJP refused which led to a minority Congress government Pratap Singh government with 18 MLA’s being sworn in, with the Congress in power in the Centre. Later 4 MLA’s of MGP split led by Dr Wilfred Mesquita and joined the Congress giving the Rane government stability.
Cut to 2012. At that time the BJP conceded 9 seats to MGP (they ultimately contested only 8). BJP insiders concede that the BJP was not at all keen for an alliance with MG and did so before the anti- Congress wave started blowing. “If the BJP had managed to pick up the wave before the alliance talks had happened, they would have never given up so many seats”, said a senior organisation BJP organisation leader.
However while Manohar Parrikar, and Chief Minister, did allow MGP space to run their departments, his departure saw a critical down turn in the relationship. Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar worked on the feedback from the party cadre. “Space wasn’t given to the Dhavlikar brothers. There was an anti corruption crackdown in the Transport department where arrests were made. It was clear hint to Sudin Dhavlikar that he was being watched, an MLA said
But this wasn’t the end of it. The PWD came under fire from several of the BJP’s MLA and local leaders, including the saffron draped Mauvin Godinho. In Taleigao, BJP’s 2012 candidate has openly asked for Dhavlikar’s resignation (see accompanying reports). Financially, the PWD has been squeezed with apparently Rs 750 crores of outstanding payments to transport contractors. It is clear why the release of those payments is important to the minister.
Meanwhile Deepak Dhavlikar the MGP president was stripped off his “Cooperative” portfolios and is left with insignificant ones like Craftsmen, Training, Printing and Stationery, while Lavoo Mamledar languishes in the Khadi board and is under severe attack from the BJP unit in Ponda.
As the alliance reached its nadir, this is story of MGGP’s burning ambition, its sense of humiliation coupled with BJP’s sense of overconfidence that it can break away from an alliance and still do well.
Our in-depth package looks at all these aspects from all angles.
