By Frederick Noronha, IANS
Panaji : The six-week-old Congress government of Chief Minister Digambar Kamat lost majority in the Goa assembly Thursday following overnight defections, paving the way for the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to stake its claim to form the government.
In the pre-dawn hours of Thursday, the two-member Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) withdrew support to the government.
The BJP said it had the numbers to form the next government, with support from two other small parties – United Goans Democratic Party and the Save Goa Front – apart from mine owner Anil Salgaocar (Independent).
Congress MLA for Santacruz, Victoria 'Mummy' Fernandes, who stayed away from an assembly session Tuesday, is also expected to switch loyalties. In the past, sitting MLAs have quit their seats and stood for re-election to get around anti-defection laws.
Elections were held to the Goa assembly on June 2. The Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) combine got 19 seats and the BJP 14 in the 40-seat assembly. Smaller parties and independents played king makers. Businessman-realtor Digambar Kamat, 53, became chief minister on June 8.
Though BJP state unit leader Manohar Parrikar denied that he had engineered any defections, political observers here see the BJP behind the present bout of instability – the party has been smarting after its June 2 defeat.
Controversial politicians Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate and Churchill Alemao – who have switched sides in the past – were also seen to be keen on a bigger say in politics here. Both had quit the Congress just before the last elections. The moves were mistimed and cost them dearly.
Thursday's pre-dawn revolt was the second major political development here this week.
Parrikar and Monserrate closed ranks Tuesday, though it was Monserrate who had toppled the Parrikar government in 2005 by moving from the BJP to the Congress. After that, he was targeted by the BJP for alleged real estate manipulations, till he suddenly quit the Congress after his wife Jennifer was refused a ticket in the June 2007 elections.
Parrikar and Monserrate are set to team up with dissident Congress legislator Victoria "Mummy" Fernandes, who had been strongly critical of Monserrate and who fought the elections against his wife.
Family loyalties have been playing a major role in this game of musical chairs.
One of the Alemao brothers is in the Save Goa Front while the other is in the Congress. The Madkaikar brothers are in the MGP, former chief minister Pratapsing Rane remains in the Congress, while his son Vishwajit is an independent.
Money may also be playing a significant role in Goa politics.
In a media statement, Congress legislator Agnelo Fernandes from the beach-village Calangute claimed that he was offered Rs.20 crore (Rs.200 million) to switch sides.
Thursday's pre-dawn drama occurred despite Save Goa Front leader Churchill Alemao saying after Tuesday's aborted political coup that it was "too early" to bring down the Digambar Kamat government. Alemao has often played a disproportionately big role in Goan politics since his entry into the assembly in 1990.
Goa has had 13 chief ministers and three stints of President's Rule since 1990, compared to three chief ministers between 1963 and 1990. Ambitious local politicians and various big lobbies acting behind the scenes are considered responsible for the chronic political instability.
Party labels mean little here, with individual egos and communal or caste loyalties being more significant than ideology.
Thursday's pre-dawn drama had been foreseen by Goan expat communities, who flooded the cyberspace with discussions of various permutations and combinations and who could assume power in a state which has come to accept that the most bizarre alliances among antagonists are possible.