Resentment within Goa BJP after coalition partners bag most cabinet berths, plum portfolios

After a controversial fortnight of government formation, the Manohar Parrikar-led coalition government in Goa presented the state budget on Friday in which, among other things, the chief minister promised to make the state garbage-free by 2020. However, beneath the seeming normalcy there are signs that the compulsions of power sharing in the BJP-led coalition are not going down well among the saffron party’s legislators themselves.

The recently-concluded elections to the state’s 40-member Assembly threw up the Congress as the single-largest party with 17 seats, and the BJP with 13 seats. Shortly after the March 11 results, the senior party leadership hammered out deals with smaller parties and Independents, which enabled it to form the government. However, this saw seven out of 10 cabinet positions being handed to other members of the coalition with only three left for BJP legislators. The cabinet is subject to a cap of 12 under the Constitution, and there has been hectic jostling both within and outside the BJP for the remaining two berths.

Resentment in BJP

Vishwajit Rane, the former Congress MLA from Valpoi in North Goa, who resigned from the Congress and the legislature on the day of the trust vote on March 16, bringing its tally down to 16, is likely to cross sides and recontest to duck the provisions of the anti-defection law. He is a likely contender for a ministership too.

This, and the ongoing efforts by the BJP to poach the Congress’ remaining 16 legislators to shore up its numbers, have caused resentment within the party.

The saffron party’s pushy two-term Calangute legislator Michael Lobo, who is credited with bringing in the Goa Forward Party to patch together the numbers that enabled the BJP to form the government, found himself relegated to the post of deputy Speaker notwithstanding a campaign by his supporters to include him in the cabinet. Lobo cryptically told a local paper recently that he would be deputy speaker as long as the government lasted.

The party won the election for the post of deputy Speaker on Friday, two days after BJP legislator Pramod Sawant was elected Speaker.

Political analysts do not doubt that Parrikar has the skills to tackle the short-term problems of floor management and balancing ambitions within the coalition. However, they say that the bigger problem for the BJP is the slide in its credibility, which has taken a battering.

Once positioning itself as “the party with a difference”, the BJP dumped its own loyalists to poach winnable candidates from the Congress in the run-up to the Assembly elections.

In its previous term in government, it compromised on casinos, illegal mining and land use issues, earning itself a reputation for U-turns.

Even its core Hindu vote turned against it at the hustings – nearly all its core Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh legislators lost. Just six of its Hindu candidates won – two of them former Congressmen.

In contrast, seven of its Christian candidates won. However, despite Christian legislators comprising the majority of the BJP’s core strength, their position in government is peripheral. Apart from Lobo, most are not assertive. And if the swearing-in protocol is any indication, former deputy Chief Minister Francis D’Souza has slipped to number four position in the cabinet, after leaders of the coalition’s main allies. The soft-spoken D’Souza was earlier passed up for the top job when the BJP chose to elevate Laxmikant Parsekar as chief minister over him in November 2014, when Parrikar went to the Centre as defence minister.

The BJP’s attempts to woo legislators from the Congress, smaller parties and Independents has earned it stinging criticism.

Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Subhash Velingkar – who formed the Goa Suraksha Manch last year after he was sacked from the Goa unit of the RSS for protesting against the BJP government – called the formation of the government by the BJP “immoral”. The Shiv Sena also criticised the government formation, referring to it as a corrupt compromise.

The Congress accused the BJP of bribing legislators to support it. The BJP has filed criminal defamation charges against a Congress leader for alleging that crores of rupees changed hands to aid the saffron party’s efforts at government formation.

The BJP and ruling alliance are now dominated by the upper castes. The region’s economically and socially powerful Gaud Saraswat Brahmins make up the largest grouping on the ruling side, as well as in the cabinet. The top three slots in government are all Brahmins.

Ironically, Other Backward Classes are better represented in the Congress Legislature Party, far more than even the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which has historically espoused the cause of the Bahujan Samaj (or the majority non-Saraswat castes) but now has more Brahmin legislators in its tally.

Simmering anger

Though blanked out by much of the mainstream media in Goa, anger at the upturning of the election mandate continues to simmer on social media. Protests at the swearing-in were followed by a public meeting in Margao. This meeting was especially critical of what was termed as the “betrayal” of Goa Forward Party leader Vijai Sardesai, who, along with two party members, won on a strident anti-BJP platform.

Eight former ministers in the previous BJP government, including the chief minister, lost in the February polls. In all, 23 of the BJP’s candidates were defeated. But the party managed to cobble together a majority government with post-poll allies. Consequently, the Goa Forward Party and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party with three seats each, and Independents have taken the much coveted portfolios of Public Works, Revenue, and Town and Country Planning. The last two portfolios are closely related to the real estate sector in the state, which most of Goa’s politicians have interests in.