Goa regional parties could be erased by national outfits like Cola wars of 1990s: Ex-Deputy CM Sardesai

Ahead of the 2022 Assembly polls, Goa's political scenario, especially the pitching of regional parties against national political outfits resembles the cola wars of the 1990s, when colas backed by a multi-national company took on local brands and won, former deputy chief minister Vijai Sardesai claimed on Tuesday.

Sardesai said his Goa Forward party and one of the state's oldest regional political party the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) could find it difficult to take on the economic might of the larger political parties — the BJP, Congress, AAP — and therefore may be rendered inconsequential in the future.

"This prevailing situation is such that even if regional forces come together, you can be subsumed by bigger players. It is like Top Cola versus Coca Cola," Sardesai told reporters while commenting on the political scenario in Goa ahead of the Assembly polls.

Sardesai's comment comes at a time when Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Trinamool Congress have stepped up their game, with an eye on the polls.

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The presence of the two national parties is in addition to the two mainstream national parties, namely the ruling BJP and the main Opposition party Congress, who have already been a part of the state's political landscape for decades now.

Sardesai said that the emergence of Coca Cola in the Goan and Indian market wiped out Top Cola, but added that regional political players in the state do not just want to vanish into oblivion.

"It is panning out like that. Everyone wanted (Erasmo de) Sequeira's Top Cola. But Top Cola disappeared after Coca Cola arrived (in Goa). We do not want to disappear," he said.

Manufactured by a company owned by former Member of Parliament late Erasmo de Sequeira, Top Cola was one of the state's most popular cola brands since it hit the market in the early 1980s. Top Cola, however, wound up operations in Goa in face of competition from Coca Cola after its arrival in India in the 1990s.

Sardesai also said that his party was looking to patch together an alliance with any political party to keep the BJP from coming to power after the polls.

Interestingly, Sardesai had contested the 2017 state Assembly polls on an anti-BJP plank but joined the saffron party-led coalition government soon after election results were announced. He was sacked from the treasury benches after the death of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar in 2019.

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