Jayant Bhale (71) has seen almost every election that has been held in independent Goa. As the proprietor of the VP Pai Bhale and Bros – a stationary shop in Panjim – he is known to many in the area. Though he has voted in all the elections in the past, this time he is not sure whether he can motivate himself to reach the election booth on February 14, the day Goans will vote in the 2022 Assembly polls.
Though it is Valentine’s Day, a day when lovers, honeymooners and much-married couples throng this state to celebrate their day of love, he candidates who are in the poll fray may experience much love from the Goans. The electorate is angry at the corruption, defections, lack of promises kept and not bettering the life of the average Goan. “I want good governance, not people who jump parties. There is so much corruption. The voice of the common people is lost in the greed of the people we have elected. I am fed up with them all,” said Bhale to Outlook. “The jobs are being sole at premium rates of 25 lakhs to 30 lakhs, so where will the common man get jobs? Can we afford to pay so much?” said an angry Bhale.
It is a weekday and the streets of Panjim, the capital city of Goa, are silent and deserted. Many of these shops, dating back to the time when Goa got its independence and became a new state, have shut down. Covid-19 and the BJP-led Goa Government are being pinpointed as the villains in the human suffering which took away thousands of lives in a state with a population of 16 lakhs. Those who have businesses running are an angry lot. From the people on the streets, taxi drivers, tour operators, households, to shops owners there is seething anger against the present power dispensation in Goa.
They want change, but given the political potpourri in the state, there is an unprecedented flux.
Even the experts in political punditry cannot give an exact reading of the situation. While the media exit polls say the BJP will get 31 per cent of the vote share, sources in the BJP say that they may win 10 seats. Congress Party sources give themselves 15 seats, leaving the remaining 15 seats in the Assembly of 40 up for grabs for the TMC, AAP and all the others in the Opposition space. This will be the toughest election the candidates of the major political parties will face. It is an election with a strong electorate versus a political class weakened by the wrath of the people.
“I don’t see any point voting in these elections. These politicians are making money at our cost. We are fools to elect them, then they jump to some other party taking money from them. I am not stepping out this year,” said Brenda Cardoza, an entrepreneur.
The BJP’s is experiencing revolt in a big way. The fissures which the late chief minister Manohar Parrikar had glued together have now come apart and the cracks are glaringly evident. The anger of the “BJP loyalists” is directed at the party leadership for engineering defections which has put cold water on many political careers. These angry loyalists or the original karyakartas of the BJP are revolting in a number of the party’s strongholds. The party campaign headquarters in Navelcar Arcade in Panjim, wears a tense look. They are preparing for the public meeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an event the Goa BJP is depending on heavily to deliver the dividends.
The hold of the RSS on the Goa BJP is very strong. An RSS leader has also been deputed to the chief minister’s office since the years of Manohar Parrikar and continues to be there even today. There is anger against the BJP for hijacking the Congress Party mandate and forming the government after the 2017 Assembly polls here. The BJP’s started its “poaching politics” right after the death of Manohar Parrikar, its late chief minister. This was out of fear that the Congress Party would poach the BJP MLAs and bring down the government in the state. “We must teach a lesson to these MLAs who are jumping from one party to another. They must be defeated,” said the owner of a furniture store in Panjim.
According to sources, there is an ongoing power struggle between the incumbent CM Pramod Sawant and the state Health minister Viswajit Rane. It started during the pandemic. Sawant over-ruled Rane’s objections to opening up the state to tourism even as the pandemic was raging, stating that Goa needed the money from the tourism sector to keep it floating. In these polls, it is believed (though unconfirmed) that the forces within the BJP are working to defeat Sawant. If such an eventuality happens, Rane will be the top leader of the BJP in that state and its CM face, post the polls.
With no old faces left in the party, the Congress Party is concentrating on getting new faces. Its leader P C Chidambaram, who is heading the campaign in Goa, has been completely fixated on pulling the party out of the abyss created by the defections. “Chidambaram ji is a no-nonsense leader. He has been able to stem the complete decimation of the Congress Party in Goa,” said a party leader. Considering the vast population of Kannadigas in Goa, the Congress Party is getting its senior leaders including a former CM from Karnataka to create an advantage for the party amongst the Kannadigas in Goa.
TMC and AAP are eyeing the space the Congress Party has not been able to occupy in the years they have sat in the Opposition. However, it is the Congress Party that has the sympathy of the Goan voters due to the large-scale poaching of its leaders by the BJP, AAP and the TMC. This is a fact not lost on the other contenders to the seat of power.
AAP is trying the make inroads into the Catholic base of the Congress Party, a task that seems tough as this has been the traditional Congress Party base. “Goans do not live the hype about the modernity of Goa. We are also very traditional in our approach. The Congress Party safeguards that traditional value,” said Clinton Alfred of Arossim.
The TMC and AAP seem to have quietened down as the elections approach. In the 2017 polls, the AAP had secured about 6 per cent of the vote share.
The TMC had not contested those polls. Both parties are now loaded with resources and plans for Goans. “Arvind Kejriwal is giving us free pilgrimages. Does he think that Goans cannot afford pilgrimages with their own money? Is this a joke?” questions Nilu Naik of Panjim. “If any politician can stop the drugs and casino culture in Goa, we will vote them for life. The younger generation is getting wasted away due to this. Casinos, drugs and alcohol are making politicians rich but not us,” said Naik to Outlook.
The anger is directed more at the BJP who has been ruling the state for the past 10 years. According to Prifar Fernandes of Ultorda, “Everything is controlled from Delhi. Our chief minister is a puppet of Delhi. So many people have died in the second wave of the pandemic. Even today the number of Covid affected are very high in Goa. No one is bothered. All the politicians want is money. How can we trust such people and elect them?” said Fernandes.
