EDITORIAL
Rahul Gandhi’s morale boost will count only if Congress fixes electoral vulnerabilities
Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress national leader Rahul Gandhi’s Goa visit on Sunday signifies a morale boost for the party’s workers in the state. His visit marked the culmination of the 28-day Goy Rakhonn Yatra (Save Goa campaign), which received a relatively good response in many constituencies. The yatra was a strategic move by the Congress to rally in the constituencies and connect with workers.
Unlike the BJP, the Congress as a party had not been proactive across the state until six months ago. It has seen many defections in less than a decade. In 2017, the Congress emerged as the single largest party with 17 seats. But the BJP, which had 13 seats, formed the government with two regional parties – Goa Forward Party and MGP – and Independents extending support to Manohar Parrikar to head the government. With the Congress failing to form the government, Vishwajit Rane quit the party to join the BJP. He won the bypolls by a huge margin.
As the ruling party did not have the numbers on its side, two Congress MLAs – Subhash Shirodkar (the present Water Resources Minister) and Dayanand Sopte – joined BJP in October 2018. As if that was not enough, 10 more MLAs, led by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant ‘Babu’ Kavlekar, joined the BJP in July 2019 – three months after Pramod Sawant took over the reins of the state following Parrikar’s demise. This earned the Congress a bad name for being unable to keep its flock together.
To assuage people’s sentiments, ahead of the February 2022 Assembly elections, all its candidates took an oath before the gods that they would not switch sides if elected. While the BJP retained power, securing 20 seats under Pramod Sawant’s leadership, the Congress got only 11 seats. Within a few days, activities to shift the allegiance of many Congress MLAs towards the saffron party commenced. The BJP needed eight MLAs to shift so as to comprise two-thirds of the Congress party’s strength and thus circumvent the anti-defection law. After four months, eight MLAs joined the BJP, reducing the Congress’ strength to just three. This is still haunting the party, and the AAP has kept the issue alive by asking voters not to trust a party whose MLAs have defected to the BJP time and again.
Gandhi is well aware of this challenge in Goa – convincing voters that their candidates, if elected, will not defect. His statement urging Goan voters to give the Congress a full majority may be linked to the need for MLAs to stick with the party in good times and bad. It sounds logical as, if the Congress gets a majority, the chances of its MLAs falling prey to “lucrative offers” will be much lower. The general tendency among elected representatives is to want to be in the ruling party. Not getting a full majority or even becoming the single largest party can again be risky for the Congress, as its MLAs could receive offers that are difficult to resist, especially if there is a hung Assembly.
Gandhi may have generated some “josh” among party workers, but the question is: what next? The Congress is not in a position to say that it can go alone at the 2027 polls. Hence, it tied up with the RGP. The BJP has been winning elections because it has well-oiled machinery that keeps in touch with its workers from the grassroots up. Not having an alliance with the GFP could have a negative impact on both parties. Both parties have agreed that they have to respect people’s sentiments – that the Opposition should come together to fight the BJP. Ego issues and mistrust could come in the way of seat-sharing talks. Now, it will be up to the Congress High Command to resolve the alliance tangle.
