Go, Goa, gone: A season of defections

PANAJI: The stakes are high in pollbound Goa as all parties have been poaching MLAs on an unprecedented scale while making promises that might be hard to keep.

Both TMC and AAP see Goa as a springboard for their pan-India dreams, and have been raiding Congress and BJP for “readymade” candidates. Bereft of its Manohar Parrikar, BJP is consolidating “saffron” votes to stay in office. And Congress, which has been out of office in the state since 2012, has roped in former union finance minister P Chidambaram to get the state unit combat-ready.

In the 2017 polls, Congress emerged the single-largest party with 17 seats in a house of 40, but defections reduced its strength to two MLAs – leader of the opposition Digambar Kamat and 83-yearold

Pratapsingh Rane

, who has all but retired from politics.

Congress suffered a major upset three months ago when former CM

Luizinho Faleiro

ended his 40-year-long allegiance to the Gandhi family and embraced TMC. Another blow fell when Alexio Reginaldo Laurenco joined TMC after making it to Congress’s first list of candidates. So, for now, Congress’s revival plan centres on recruiting potential winners.

But in its long slumber, the principal opposition party has failed to bait the government on various public issues and controversies. Even its alliance with Goa Forward Party (GFP) materialised after much dilly-dallying and political observers remain doubtful about its benefits.

BJP, which built its majority on defections, finds itself in a different bind now as some of the turncoats have declined to contest on its ticket fearing a backlash in the Catholic-dominated constituencies they represent. Besides anti-incumbency, the party is mired in controversies, including allegations of a recruitment scam, and a
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