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Congress captures power in Goa

The Congress has won a majority in the Goa assembly election. The party won 21 seats in the 40-member legislature.

The Bharatiya Janata Party is in second place, with an impressive 11 seats.

The Maharashtrawadi Gomanatak Party won 4 seats while the United Goan Democratic Party retained its two seats. The Goa Rajiv Congress won two seats.

The Congress gained three seats while the BJP gained 7 seats.

The BJP gained at the expense of the MGP, once the main Opposition party in the beach state.

The GRC, which was formed last year, gained both its seats while the UGDP retained the 2 seats it had in the last assembly.

MGP leader and former Union law minister Ramakant Khalap told Star News this afternoon, "there was a tremendous wave against the Congress in Goa. The BJP and MGP should have benefited from that wave, but unfortunately an alliance could not come about for this election because of the high handedness of some BJP leaders and their demands. Despite the MGP giving the BJP a majority of seats."

Khalap, who returned victorious to the state assembly, revealed that discussions about an alliance had collapsed on May 16, a day before nominations for the election closed. "This left us with no time to form an alliance with the other regional parties," he said, adding that "the BJP has made serious inroads in every MGP bastion in the state." The MGP, he concluded, now looks forward to an alliance with the BJP for the September general election. Goa has two Lok Sabha seats.

Khalap from Mandrem and BJP leader Manohar Parrikar from Panaji were the first two candidates declared elected on Sunday morning. Congress candidate Alexio Sequiera has already been declared unopposed from Lotalieum earlier. The Congress suffered an early loss when assembly speaker Tomazino Cardazo lost to UGDP candidate Suresh Parulekar.

The MGP leader defeated his Congress rival, sitting MLA Sangeeta Parab, while Parrikar retained his seat.

Three other candidates -- former chief minister Churchill Alemao (Congress) from Benaulim, Congress leader Francisco Sardinha from Curtorium and the BJP's Vinay Tendulkar were among the early winners.

Sardinha told reporters that if the Congress was voted to power he would stake his claim for the chief ministership. A member of the dissolved Lok Sabha from South Goa, he was a Congress minister in the Pratapsingh Rane ministry and later in Dr Wilfred de Souza's ministry.

By throwing his hat in the fray, Sardinha has complicated matters for the Congress leadership. All the party's other former CMs have won the election to the state assembly -- Alemao, Luizinho Faleiro (Navelim), Ravi Naik and Rane -- and party president Sonia Gandhi may find it difficult to choose a chief minister from these ambitious men.

An indication of the party leadership's thinking was given by Pranab Mukherjee, one of Sonia's advisers, in a conversation to Star News. Mukherjee appeared to give short shrift to Rane's chances of becoming chief minister for another term, saying his 14 years as chief minister would not automatically give him the right to form a government.

If Sonia's choice is made on the basis of realpolitik, Goa's caste politics will ensure that the next chief minister is Naik, a member of the backward Bhandari caste. However, Naik -- who won a handsome victory in Ponda, central Goa -- is said to be close to rebel Congress leader Sharad Pawar.

State Congress president Luizinho Faleiro told reporters that Sonia will choose the leader of the Congress Legislature Party. ''I have been asked to lead the party in the election and with the help of my partymen and the people, the Congress has received a decisive mandate to form the government on its own.''

Notable victories for the MGP were Khalap and former Goa minister Pandurang Raut from Bicholim. The MGP suffered a major setback when it lost its traditional Pernem seat in the north to Congress candidate Jitendra Deshprabhu.

Apart from the Panaji seat which Parrikar won handsomely, the BJP took three more seats -- Siolim in the north and Sanguem and Savardem in the south.

The GRC managed to win Mapusa where Fravnise d'Souza, president of the Mapusa municipality, defeated MGP president Surendra Sirsat. Mapusa is a traditional MGP seat. GRC chief Dr Willy retained his Saligao seat.

The UGDP won the Calangute and Vasco seats.

Former minister Dayanand Narvekar was elected from Thivim for the second time on a Congress ticket. Narvekar had joined hands with Dr Willy when de Souza toppled the Rane government in July 1998 and formed the GRC. However, he returned to the parent party in November.

After his return, there was a demand to deny him a nomination, but the Congress leadership in Goa thought his chances of winning the election were bright, hence he was eventually given a ticket.

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