BJP's triumph in Goa more than just electoral

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) outmanoeuvred the opposition Congress party in forming the government only because they were quicker off the mark than their rivals in wooing their present coalition partners.

In fact, newly-elected MLAs of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP), the United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP) and the lone independent, were "escorted" to the governor's palace by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar even before they could be approached by the Congress party.

He had presented his group of 21 legislators before Governor Mohammed Fazal one day after the results were declared.

The organisational capacity of the BJP was at its very best when it came to contacting and obtaining the tacit support of the five MLAs. At least one of these five MLAs has gone on record to state that he was "left with no choice but to support the BJP" indicating that the BJP's offers were difficult to turn down.

With Federal Minister Pramod Mahajan camping in the state to oversee the entire electioneering process starting with the campaign meetings of the BJP candidates early last month, the BJP knew that its sole objective was to shake off the adverse publicity following the Gujarat carnage and establishing itself as the single largest party in the state.

This goal was achieved with comparative ease as the BJP garnered 17 seats of the total 40, while the Congress party, who were expecting a clear mandate following its projection as "a secular party", bagged 16. That one seat made all the difference as the BJP came out as the single largest party to stake its claim to form the government, analysts said.

That done, the BJP went about and obtained the support of the two MGP elected candidates and an independent it had backed while also coaxing two of the three candidates elected on the UGDP ticket.

Two interesting facts that surface at this stage is the role played by money and the exclusion of one UGDP MLA who refrained from backing the coalition.

Of the five outside MLAs supporting the BJP coalition, at least two have splurged huge amounts of money to secure their places as the peoples' representatives.

No wonder than that both these MLAs belonging to the UGDP jumped the Parrikar bandwagon without even consulting the party leaders.

"It is but right, that we recover the investment made," one of the elected MLAs sought to explain after being asked how they had joined the coalition without consulting their party heirarchy.

The third UGDP MLA, Mathany Saldanha, who defeated former power minister Mauvin Godinho of the Congress party from the Cortalim seat has remained steadfastly against accepting offers from both the BJP and the opposition. Instead, he has offered to support the BJP coalition government on issues.

Opposition party sources say that such arm-twisting tactics are not new as the shrewd chief minister had used similar tactics when his government had sought a premature dissolution of the state legislative assembly in February this year.