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Weird ties spell stability in Goa

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The only rule in politics is that there are no rules, that nothing is as it seems.

Check out the scene in Goa, where it's all happening -- the opposition fighting the ruling party, elements within the opposition and the ruling party coming together to fight their own presumed friends....

Or how about this -- state Chief Minister Dr Wilfred de Souza and the leader of the opposition Luizinho Faleiro joining hands in order to quell dissidence within their respective parties?

Weird as it seems, the situation has in fact provided stability of sorts for the ruling anti-Congress coalition government. And it stems from the fact that the chief minister and the opposition leader have both been making public statements to the effect that neither will support moves to topple the other.

"Yes, there is a pact between us," admits de Souza, averring that he will not allow the dissident group within the Congress to unseat Faleiro as leader of the Congress legislature party.

"I will use my clout in Delhi to save his seat, if need be," says the chief minister, who had split from the Congress to form the present coalition government, swears.

Faleiro for his part has quickly distanced himself from the attempts being made by Minister for Irrigation Dayanand Narvekar to engineer a split within the ruling Goa Rajiv Congress, and thus topple the de Souza government.

Interestingly Narvekar -- who, like de Souza, is a lapsed Congressman -- says his goal is to bring back Congress rule in the state. But Faleiro, head of the CLP, is not having any.

"We are not interested in toppling the present government. It will fall by itself as a result of internal contradictions," Faleiro declares.

Faleiro and de Souza ties go back a long way. Together, they had split the Congress in the state, to form the Goa Congress in 1983. Then they fell out, and went their separate political ways -- only to come together again in a time of mutual need.

Analysts believe that the ultimate outcome will be the merger of the Goa Rajiv Congress with the parent body on the eve of elections. And that in the interim, de Souza and Faleiro will try and use their combined powers to finish off their political enemies.

The only thing that seems clear now is that the three-month-old coalition government headed by the GRC will survive the 12 months or so remaining before the state goes to the polls again.

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