After waiting with bated breath for more than a month and watching the election roller-coaster breeze along in the States — Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Manipur — Goa, will finally learn about its next ruler on March 11.
It’s not that Goa did not have its share of excitement in the period of more than 30 days, after February 4, when the State elections were held along with Punjab. One political drama after the other played out in the coastal State, enough to keep the denizens of the tropical region on the edge.
For example, even as poll officials sealed the EVMs on the evening of February 4, the Congress and the Goa Forward, a regional party, cried foul, claiming young jawans from military training camps were added to the voters list surreptitiously, without following procedure.
“These are underhand tactics. The question is why it is a coincidence that voting in the Army Cantonment areas in Goa increase, when Manohar Parrikar (a former Goa Chief Minister) is a Defence Minister,” All India Congress Committee secretary Girish Chodankar had alleged.
The allegations were brushed aside by the BJP, who claimed that the Congress was anticipating defeat and was therefore making “baseless allegations”. At a subsequent all-party meeting Chief Electoral Officer Kunal said all procedures were followed vis-a-vis enrolment of the jawans.
Another poll-related controversy, also incidentally featuring Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar, which had triggered during the poll campaign phase, reached its logical conclusion after the polling day, after gathering much steam.
Remarks made by Parrikar on January 29, asking voters to accept money from candidates of other political parties but vote for the BJP, had earned him a notice from the Election Commission of India.
However, the final ruling of the Commission was eventually announced much after polling day, in which the constitutional authority reprimanded the senior politician from making such comments.
Another poll-related controversy which raged for more than a month has been the liberty given to 15,590 Government officials engaged in polling duties to cast their respective vote until the morning of March 11 by postal ballot.
While the Opposition has alleged that the BJP-led State Government has been pressurising its employees to vote for the BJP, the Chief Minister laxmikant Parsekar has however rubbished the charge.
“Goa Government’s servants by and large cannot be threatened or bought,” Parsekar said in defence.
The more than a month-long delay between the date of polling and counting, has however given some time for the main contestants, the BJP as well as the Congress, to
re-assess their claims of winning elections.
While the rhetoric of “single-handedly” winning the February 4 elections remains, the narrative of both parties now suggests more modest and practical claims that the ones made earlier.
While during its campaign and immediately after the elections, the BJP had claimed that it will win 27 seats, its State president has whittled down the number to 22-33.
State Congress president luizinho Faleiro, who too had claimed a complete victory for the party, says that it is open to alliance from other like-minded individuals and regional parties.
“As I said before, if any other candidate believes in the Congress ideology, in its programme and manifesto, they’re free to support us,” Faleiro now claims.
Claims made by politicians irrespective, it is eventually the diktat of Goa’s voters, which is presently locked in EVMs, which will decide the fate of the 251 candidates in contest for the 40 legislative Assembly seats.
While the BJP has fielded 36 candidates, the Congress is contesting from 37 seats, the AAP from 39 seats, the MGP-GSM-SS alliance from 25 seats and the Nationalist Congress Party from 18 seats. Another regional party Goa Forward has fielded four candidates.