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MGP in the grip of identity crisis

Sandesh Prabhudesai in Panaji

The Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, which ruled Goa for 17 years soon after liberation, is today struggling hard to retain its identity as it prepares to face the electorate in the ensuing state assembly polls. On their part, the Congress and the BJP are planning to go it alone.

Former union law minister Ramakant Khalap, the MGP leader, is busy hobnobbing with both the parties to forge a poll alliance, though neither of them seem fully receptive to the idea. The situation has changed drastically after the Lok Sabha was dissolved.

The political flux in this coastal state began soon after the assembly was prematurely dissolved in February and president's rule imposed. Expecting elections by May end, the MGP had almost finalised a regional front along with the United Goans Democratic Party and the Goa Rajiv Congress, the Congress splinter group led by Dr Wilfred de Souza.

The sympathy wave for the BJP after the Lok Sabha dissolution has however changed all permutations and combinations in Goa. Khalap was the first one to recognise and react to this: he began extending the olive branch to the Hindutva party. The regional front so enthusiastically envisaged, it appears, is fated to be stillborn.

The MGP leadership is vertically divided on the alliance issue. Khalap, reacting to pressures from within his party, airdashed to Delhi early this week to hold talks with Congress leader Sharad Pawar, who subsequenty proposed to Sonia Gandhi that they should align with the MGP to fight the BJP in the state.

Goa PCC chief Luizinho Faleiro, who was also in Delhi at the same time, claims he is not aware of such talks. Sources close to him confirm that Faleiro has vehemently opposed Pawar's proposal as he is already walking a tight rope over allocation of tickets.

Another group within the MGP, led by former chief minister Shashikala Kakodkar, strongly seeks an alliance with the BJP. Interestingly, the BJP had made its debut in the assembly in the '94 polls -- it won four seats -- by allying with the MGP. Since than the saffron party has strengthened its base in all the 40 constituencies.

The local BJP leadership, on the other hand, appears to be more interested in breaking the MGP rather than joining hands with them. "We would welcome like-minded people from all quarters," states Dr Suresh Amonkar, the local BJP chief. The process has in fact already begun with prospective MGP candidates joining the BJP.

Any prognosis about the possible outcome is compounded by a pre-Lok Sabha dissolution survey conducted by Excellent Relations, a private firm, which puts Congress on the top with around 44 per cent of the votes, followed by the BJP with 30 per cent. The MGP is expected to garner no more than three per cent, while the UGDP and the GRC are estimated to get four per cent each.

The BJP leaders claim that the post-dissolution sympathy wave would help them while the Congress margin would come down due to the inevitable rebels who, disgruntled with seat allocation, will be expected to throw a spanner in its works. Faleiro tries to put on a bold face by exclaiming ''we will not tolerate any revolt come what may," but it remains to be seen how far action will match rhetoric.

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