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BJP corners Hindu vote in Goa

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The Bharatiya Janata Party has put up a sparkling performance in the Goa assembly polls by winning 10 seats and emerging as the main opposition party.

The statistics say it all. The Congress has gained only 2 per cent as far its share of total votes polled is concerned, compared to '94 polls when it had polled 37 per cent votes, but won only 18 seats. Against this, the BJP's vote share has leaped from 9 per cent in '94 to 26 per cent this time. It has also improved its tally from four seats to 10.

Setting a new trend in Goan politics, both the national parties have, however, wiped out the regional outfits, including the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), which has ruled the state for 17 years.

While winning only four seats, including a stunning comeback by former union minister, Ramakant Khalap, the MGP's vote share has shrunk to only 15 per cent from 22 per cent in '94. The party had won 12 seats last time.

Even their stalwarts like former chief minister, Shashikala Kakodkar, party chief, Surendra Sirsat, general secretary, Dharma Chodankar, and former opposition leader, Kashinath Jalmi, have faced humiliating defeats.

The United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) and the Goa Rajiv Congress (GRC), whose pre-poll plan to tie up with the MGP to form a regional front failed, too have not fared any better. Both the parties have polled under 6 per cent of the total votes, while winning only two seats each.

"Regional parties should wind up their shop now," says Pratapsing Rane, former Congress chief minister. He joined Congress in 1977 leaving the MGP, through which he had entered politics.

Khalap, however, disagrees. Rather than winding up, he prefers to look at the disastrous results as an eye opener and spend some time in introspection. "It is our organisational failure," he admits.

Meanwhile, the BJP, with the well-knit organisational set-up of the Sangh Parivar, has exploited the vacuum created by weakened regional parties and has won over MGP's Hindu vote bank, while also making inroads into the Congress support pockets. Among the eight new seats they have won, three are traditional Congress strongholds.

"Our chances were ruined due to rebellion," claims recently elected Congress Legislature Party leader and chief minister in waiting, Luizinho Faleiro, referring to the GRC. That, however, is not entirely true. The break-away Congress group made a difference to Congress prospects only in three constituencies, including the two won by the GRC, besides one won by Poinguinim Congress rebel Isidore Fernandes.

In fact, Congress won seven seats by bravely facing the GRC challenge.

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