Goa has a lesson for BJP

But Parrikar paid a price for this, in terms of his credibility. Allegations that he had personally doled out civil works contracts without calling for competitive bids began to stick. The Congress party didn’t help matters by hinting that a CBI probe against Parrikar was due after the polls. Still, Parrikar’s record was a shade whiter than that of Congressmen, who have ruled Goa since the 1970s. So why did BJP lose this time?

The BJP’s Hindutva robes, which Parrikar cleverly hid under his untucked shirt, started showing. When Sangh Parivar hoodlums ran amuck, burning Muslim prayer halls, they ensured the undermining of the BJP. Soon they discovered remnants of a Hindu temple at the Bishop’s Palace, even while Parrikar inhabited the CM’s official residence across the street.

After the Congress engineered the downfall of the BJP government in 2005, most of the moderate elements associated with Parrikar, like the present chief minister, Digamber Kamat, walked out of the BJP, leaving behind only a bunch of hot-blooded storm troopers. Except for a handful, none of Parrikar’s proteges can win an election on his own.

So the party took a beating at the hustings since its star was busy in his own backyard. This reporter who toured the length and breadth of Goa found BJP workers at most places urging voters to ignore the candidate and cast their vote in favour of Parrikar. Even hard-core RSS leaders in Goa, who hated Parrikar, had to play along, since the former chief minister had cannily prevented even a single articulate MLA to grow and pose a future challenge to his leadership.

Having clasped the Goa BJP in a vice-like grip, Parrikar played a Machiavellian game and worked to split the secular vote ahead of the elections. Atnasio Babush Monserrate, the controversial town and country planning minister, who scripted the sale of forests and villages to real estate developers, was urged to leave the Congress party on the last date for filing nominations and contest as a UGDP candidate.

Parrikar also wooed South Goa MP Churchill Alemao to quit the Congress and float his own Save Goa Front to complete the damage wreaked by Monserrate. The gambit worked only partially. Only one UGDP candidate, Monserrate, won. But SGF which bagged just two seats caused the defeat of at least five candidates in the Congress-NCP coalition, including Deputy Chief Minister Wilfred D’Souza of the NCP.

Unfortunately for Parrikar and the BJP, the central leaderships of the Congress and the NCP decided to bypass the local leadership and take the battle into their own hands. By fielding a tough candidate, Dinar Tarcar, who cut his teeth as Monserrate’s strategist in the past against Parrikar, the party got the entire Catholic community in Panaji behind it.

With just 14 seats in a house of 40, the BJP can only hope for the Congress-led coalition to fall apart. Already the Digamber Kamat government is beset by feuding satraps who are angling for a larger share of office. But with Goa depending on the UPA government at the Centre for funds, Parrikar will find it difficult to bring down the government.

Things could change en route to the 2009 general elections — especially if the UPA is seen to be slipping. The day Pawar decides to snap ties with Sonia Gandhi, the Goa government will come apart. The three NCP MLAs along with the UGDP, MGP and independents, can easily put Parrikar back on the saddle. That is if the long knives pulled out by the Sangh Parivar do not find their mark.