JOIN USThe resentment over the Congress “squandering” the North Goa seat to the NCP which it lost to the BJP, will weigh on the future of the two-party alliance in this state.
Given the numbers equation at present, the NCP which was seen as driving too hard a bargain both in Maharashtra and Goa also finds its political leverage in the state politics now considerably reduced. In Goa, the Congress was compelled to drop one of its ministers last year to accommodate a member of the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) in the Cabinet on Pawar’s insistence.
The move was part of Pawar’s plan to establish a Maratha alliance in Goa between the NCP, MGP and Speaker Pratapsingh Rane’s son Vishwajit. The induction caused considerable heartburn in the Congress because of the MGP’s often pro-BJP stance. An unsparing critic of the Congress, MGP Minister Sudhin Dhavlikar has few friends in the ruling party either. Chief Minister Digambar Kamat will have little to lose if he chose to break off the MGP deal. If anyone needs to worry, it is Pawar himself.
The NCP, a house divided before the election, could see an exodus to the Congress in Goa. NCP Goa president Wilfred De Souza, a proponent of a Congress-NCP merger has made public his disenchantment with Pawar’s decisions. The NCP’s organisational wing was conspicuous by its absence at Pawar’s election rallies in Goa. The rift was all the more obvious when Pawar chose to open a new party office in Panaji to cold-shoulder the De Souza faction.
DH News Service