BJP splits Congress second time in last three years; ‘The Congress was undertaking a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, but a Congress ‘Chhodo Yatra’ is now beginning from Goa,’ says CM Dr Pramod Sawant
@the_news_21
Mumbai: Throwing their anti-defection pledges on sworn affidavits, to the winds, eight of the total 11 Congress MLAs in the Goa Legislative Assembly defected to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant on Wednesday. With this latest defection the ruling saffron party succeeded in splitting the Congress twice in three years.
In a startling, though unsurprising, turn of events, the volatile coastal state of Goa witnessed another round of political musical chairs as eight Congress legislators – two-thirds of the party’s strength in the Goa Legislature – moved en masse to the BJP in an action replay of the Congress’ mass defections to the saffron party in 2019.
This time the turncoats include top Congress guns like ex-Chief Chief Minister Digambar Kamat and former Leader of Opposition Michael Lobo and his wife Delilah Lobo, as well long-time Congress loyalists like Aleixo Sequeira, Sankalp Amonkar and Rodolfo Fernandes along with Rajesh Faldessai and Kedar Naik.
High drama ensued today morning as the eight MLAs reached the Goa Legislative Assembly to complete the merger formalities with the Speaker.
Following these eight defections, the BJP, which has 20 MLAs in the 40-seat Assembly, has now increased its strength to 28 while the ruling BJP government (along with allies) now has the support 33 MLAs including two legislators of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) and three independents.
The total opposition is reduced to just seven MLAs – three from the beleaguered Congress (Carlos Ferreira, Altone d’ Costa and Yuri Alemao), one from Goa Forward Party, two from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and one from the Revolutionary Goans Party (RGP).
Speaking to reporters at the BJP party office where the Congress rebels were officially welcomed, an elated Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, who had engineered the 2019 coup as well remarked, “The Congress was undertaking a ‘Bharat Jodo Yatra’, but a Congress ‘Chhodo Yatra’ is now beginning from Goa. They have joined us to take Goa’s development forward and to realise the Prime Minister ’s vision of a New India. I welcome all 8 MLAs to the BJP.”
Stating that all eight Congressmen had joined the BJP “unconditionally,” Dr Pramod Sawant further remarked that what had started in Goa, would be soon seen across the country as Congress leaders will leave their party en masse to join the BJP.
The Goa Chief Minister further added, “We are confident of winning both the Lok Sabha seats in Goa (North Goa and South Goa seats) in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The BJP will win more than 400 seats in the general election.” He further claimed, drily adding, “if anyone else wants to join the BJP, they are welcome to join us.”
Pointing out that the BJP had 27 MLAs in its previous tenure and that the party’s slogan had been to achieve ‘22+ seats’ in the 2022 Goa Assembly, he observed that the BJP already had 28 MLAs (20 of its own along with the eight Congress defectors) by the end of 2022.
A major crisis within the Goa Congress was in the air after Goa desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao had rushed to the coastal state in July this year to preclude a major split within the party. Rao had claimed that the split was being engineered by Michael Lobo and Digambar Kamat in coordination with the ruling BJP.
While the crisis appeared to have been averted at the time in July, the defections today prove it was merely postponed.
Commenting on the defections, Dinesh Gundu Rao, in a tweet, lashed out against the BJP, stating, “The destruction of democratic principles is on full display in Goa. Offering huge monies, ministries and inducements, the BJP is trying to uproot the opposition. Shameful exercise of power and money by an authoritarian establishment.”
An angry Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the Goan public had voted for these MLAs only because they were Congress candidates who had taken oaths in temples, churches and dargahs while giving affidavits that they would not defect to the BJP come what may.
Speaking after his joining the BJP, Digambar Kamat explained away his volte face by drolly quipping, “In politics, circumstances sometimes compelled one to take a hard decision. Yes, I had taken the oath in front of God not to leave the Congress. Now, I asked God what to do and He (God) told me to decide accordingly. So, I have taken a decision in the interests of the State after looking at the work of PM Modi.”
Digambar Kamat, a seven-time MLA from Margao, was the Congress’ Chief Ministerial face during the Goa Assembly election held in February this year.
For Michael Lobo and his wife Delilah, amongst the richest MLA couples in the coastal State, it was a homecoming to the BJP as they had both joined the Congress a few months before the February Assembly election.
“When senior Congressmen like Ghulam Nabi Azad and Kapil Sibal, considered pillars of their party, speak out against the Congress leadership, then these are signs to be taken seriously… People in my constituency told me to leave, I had to listen to them,” remarked Michael Lobo. He also expressed his dissatisfaction with Rahul Gandhi’s on-going ‘Bharat Jodo’ yatra.
Despite the Congress emerging as the single-largest party with 17 MLAs after the 2017 Assembly elections, it had failed to seize the initiative to form the government, leading the BJP — which had secured just 13 seats — to cobble an alliance with smaller regional parties such as the Goa Forward Party (GFP) and the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP).
This setback to the Congress was followed by a major blow in 2019 when 10 of its MLAs had switched allegiances to join the BJP, bringing down the party tally to just two MLAs — former Chief Ministers Pratapsingh Rane and Digambar Kamat.
In a bid to preclude any recurrence and put a stop to rampant horse-trading, all the 37 Congress candidates had taken loyalty pledges ahead of the February Assembly election in the presence of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at a temple, dargah and a church vowing not to defect to other parties regardless of the election result.
Hitting out at the “breath-taking opportunism” of the defecting Congress MLAs, Goa Forward Party (GFP) chief Vijai Sardesai said that the Congress rebels had “destroyed the faith of the Goan people in democracy.”
“The eight legislators who have decided, against all political propriety, basic decency and honesty, to pursue their greed for wealth and hunger for power, stand today as the symbols of pure evil,” added Vijai Sardesai. It may be recalled that Sardesai’s GFP had contested the polls in alliance with the Congress.
The GFP chief, the lone MLA from his party, said that the BJP today had completed “the murder of democracy it had begun since (late BJP leader) Manohar Parrikar’s demise.”
“Now, even the BJP cadre have to check who the real BJP is, given the number of imported leaders that are with the party today. Unfortunately, in all this, it is the Goan public that will suffer,” he added.
With the question now over who constituted the opposition in the 40-seat Assembly, Vijai Sardesai said that he alone was combative enough to function as a “one-man opposition”.
Meanwhile, the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that the defections proved what AAP National Convenor and New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had always said about the Congress ahead of the Goa Assembly election that a vote for the Congress effectively meant a vote for the BJP.
Speaking in Delhi, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who alleged that the BJP had attempted to bribe his party’s MLAs in Punjab, questioned why only Congress MLAs were getting poached. “Why can’t they buy our (AAP) MLAs despite their attempts?” queried the Delhi CM.
The defections come barely two months after Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde’s intra-party revolt in neighbouring Maharashtra, which was facilitated by the BJP and amid widespread speculation of a major churn within the Maharashtra Congress itself.
