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BJP awaits its turn in Goa

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

While the other MLAs squabble, those from the Bharatiya Janata Party shrewdly are keeping themselves out of the melee.

While they unconditionally support the new coalition government led by Dr Wilfred de Souza, they make sure it's all from the outside. And they have no plans on anvil to pull it down later either. On the contrary, the BJP's central leadership has reportedly assured them to keep it in power till the ensuing assembly election, scheduled by November next year.

The BJP's national executive has backed its local unit in its decision that neither would their MLAs take ministerial berths nor take important posts in the government run by a combination of Dr de Souza's breakaway Congress group, the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party and two Independents.

The coalition expects to win at least 32 seats by going to elections as a team, provided the BJP-led government continues at the Centre till the Goa assembly poll is declared. The BJP, however, is looking forward to having at least 10 MLAs contest on BJP tickets from the existing 24-member ruling coalition led by Dr de Souza.

Besides these four MLAs, the Sangh Parivar plans to win over at least four ministers from the splinter Congress group, currently called the Goa Rajiv Congress, and two ministers from the MGP, traditionally a mixture of Hindutvawadi and socialist elements.

After toppling Pratapsingh Rane's Congress government on July 29, the ruling combination had worked out an agenda for governance that specifies that members of the splinter Congress group are free to join either the BJP or the MGP.

Besides this, they have agreed to give tickets to all sitting members and to work out seat adjustments in other 17 constituencies.

But the BJP isn't really interested in Catholic leaders like Dr de Souza or politicians like Dayanand Narvekar.

"In fact, we would be happy if five of them are not with us to fight the next election," says one BJP strategist.

Narvekar, sidelined by Dr de Souza while allocating portfolios this time, is exploring new avenues. His supporters have publicly requested him to join the BJP, but the Hindutwavadis have chosen to keep their distance from him.

The BJP, a non-entity in Goa till the 1991 Lok Sabha poll, has suddenly sprung up as a major political force in the tiny state, after they got four MLAs elected, thanks to an alliance with the MGP in the 1994 assembly election. In the recent general election, they lost to the Congress with a wafer-thin margin, biting away a huge chunk of the Congress's traditional vote bank.

Dr de Souza, believed to be close to Sonia Gandhi, has not ruled out rejoining the Congress any time. Notably, his breakaway group is also known as the Goa Rajiv Congress. To underline his willingness to return, he said recently, "We still have high regards for Sonia as the leader."

Shantaram Naik, the Goa Congress chief, however, claims that the ruling mix of odds and ends will collapse in a month. If it doesn't, the Congress base could be badly shaken. Already, the worried party is cracking down on workers switching over to the Dr de Souza camp. And the pressure is beginning to show on all of the state Youth Congress.

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