Goa defections raise unsettling urgent questions

Latest last-stretch free movement of legislators has left voters disillusioned, cynical and angry

Over the past weeks, eight legislators in Goa have switched parties and affiliations, and more are likely to do so in the hyperactive political climate ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls. The current Assembly has fewer than two months to the end of this term. So the series of high-profile resignations and photo-op inductions are designed to create the optics of being a winning ascendant party and demoralise and portray a rival party as a losing side.

The spate of resignations, defections, and inductions has evoked a groundswell of resentment among citizens. The tiny state of Goa is witnessing a worrying new trend of overtly corporatised corruption in politics.

For starters, this election marks the calculated use of pre-election defections as a political weapon. Goa, unfortunately, is accustomed to witnessing post-election defections regularly, but the current trend is a new low. The gains have all been to the Trinamool Congress, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Also Read — TMC 'not even in the race' in Goa, says Kejriwal

It started with Luizinho Faleiro leaving the Congress in September to join the TMC and being rewarded a Rajya Sabha seat. The latest Congress MLA to resign is Alexio Reginald Lourenco, who the AAP was earlier courting, then was caught in a controversy over meeting BJP election managers and finally, joined the TMC. Senior Congress leader Ravi Naik had been hobnobbing with the BJP for two years but recently was strategically inducted with the accompanying fanfare.

Goa Forward Party (GFP) MLA Jayesh Salgaonkar moved to the BJP, as did independent MLA Rohan Khaunte. The latter had been in talks with the Congress, had taken a strong anti-BJP stance over the past two years, even referencing Goa chief minister with the derogatory term "pappu", but did a volte-face in mid-December. Lone Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Churchill Alemao did not resign but claimed he had merged with the TMC as the NCP's legislature wing in Goa - a move that the NCP contested and sought his disqualification before the speaker. Alina Saldanha of the BJP joined the AAP, while BJP MLA Carlos Almeida resigned and joined the Congress. Saldanha and Almeida were unlikely to be offered a ticket by the BJP.

At least one MLA has openly talked of "packages" in the exchange currently under way, and allegations and accusations of MLAs for sale are flying thick and fast and out in the open, unlike the furtive secret, sudden deals they once were. This latest last-stretch free movement of legislators, which the public view as blatant opportunism, has left voters disillusioned, cynical and angry. The past politically turbulent five years have seen the 2017 mandate upturned by a Raj Bhavan acting in favour of the ruling BJP. The BJP went on to induct 15 party defectors in a 40 member house to stay afloat through the term. Not surprisingly, the resentment and backlash against Lourenco's shift to the TMC may have forced him to clarify: "I didn't join any party for money. I joined the TMC keeping the interests of the people of Goa in mind."

Concern over the new political stock exchange is growing, with citizens speaking out. "There was always money in politics, but it was party-oriented and election oriented. Now it is about self-gratification. The corporatisation of politics is the worst thing, even worse than normal corruption," wrote human rights activist and political commentator Ranjan Solomon. He underscored the need for an independent investigation into the sources of income of political parties.

Also Read — Trinamool's entry enlivens Goa politics ahead of Assembly polls

"The Election Commission ought to take cognisance of this eleventh-hour party hopping as it completely undermines the party system under which elections are held. Perhaps there ought to be a stipulation of a one year minimum membership period of a party before one can contest on that party's ticket," suggests lawyer and political commentator Cleofato Almeida Coutinho. He believes direct involvement of corporate entities in the electoral process is a threat to the party system. "Should political work be outsourced like this?" asks Almeida Coutinho.

Advantage BJP?

Out of power for 10 years in the state, with most of its heavyweight politicians gravitating to the BJP, the Congress in Goa believed it was set to gain from the anti-incumbency and general fatigue with the BJP's misgovernance on Covid-19 management, infrastructural mess, price rise and unemployment. But then the TMC elbowed its way into the Goa picture, seeking to mop up this vote.

The TMC's aggressive poaching had little effect, as long as it swept up every minor political activist in Goan politics. It had initially tried but failed to get Vijai Sardesai's regional Goa Forward Party onboard and sharpened its attack on the Congress and the GFP when the two announced their alliance. The game-changer came when the NCP's Churchill Alemao joined the TMC. Veteran politicians, Alemao and Faleiro still hold pockets of influence in some South Goa minority segments, and their foe-turned-friend act has the potential to give the TMC the boost it needs. However, the TMC's West Bengal regional origins remain a significant disadvantage in its Goa game.

The TMC's alliance with the saffron leaning Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) accords the TMC a little more acceptability by association than when it started its Goa sojourn. For its part, the MGP's rejection this time of its saffron big brother BJP, for repeatedly poaching and discarding its ministers, is expected to sting the BJP from a vote split and may well be sweet revenge for the former. The MGP tie-up with new entrant TMC additionally gives the former the heft it requires to contest some twelve seats it has contestants for and back-in-the-game confidence after losing MLAs to the BJP in 2019.

Also Read — From 17 seats to mere 2, Congress faces desertion blues in Goa

The overcrowded opposition lineup could work to the BJP's advantage. Public disenchantment with the BJP had put it on the back foot at the start of the campaign. Some of its MLAs were looking to shift to the Congress. It expected no thumping majority after ruling Goa for the better part of two decades. At best, the BJP's gambit is to get enough seats somehow to let a repeat of 2017 bail it out yet again.

The late entry of the TMC could benefit the BJP. In a state where victory margins are a mere 3000 votes or less, for the most part, the opposition vote split is anticipated to give the BJP an edge in Goa's small assembly segments and close contests, which regularly throw up hung assembly numbers. Winnable candidates, who astutely gauge the political winds to ensure they pick a winning side had by mid-December and post-Mamata Banerjee's second Goa visit, began reading 'advantage BJP' and course-correcting in the complex political field.

"The political situation is changing with the entry of new political parties which are setting up shops trying to sell their toys in Goa," independent legislator Rohan Khaunte was quoted saying. Khaunte was expected to join the Congress, his supporters already had, but instead swallowed his pride and picked the BJP.

The Goan public, more than anyone, know there's nothing permanent in politics.

(The writer is a senior journalist based in Goa)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author's own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.

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