By Frederick Noronha, IANS
Panaji : Post-midnight intense political activity and defections in Goa has led to the Digambar Kamat-led Congress government being reduced to a minority after ruling this state for hardly six weeks.
Elections were held to the Goa assembly on June 2 and 53-year-old businessman-realtor Digambar Kamat became chief minister on June 8, 2007.
In the June polls, the Congress-NCP got 19 seats and the BJP 14 in the 40-seat assembly. Smaller parties and independents played king-makers' roles.
In the pre-dawn hours of Thursday morning, the two-member strong Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party withdrew support to the Congress government.
The BJP said it had the numbers to form the next government, with support from the two other smaller parties United Goans Democratic Party and the Save Goa Front, apart from mineowner Anil Salgaocar (Independent).
Congress MLA for Santacruz, Victoria 'Mummy' Fernandes, who stayed off an assembly session Tuesday, is also expected to switch loyalties. In the past, sitting MLAs have quit their seats and stood for re-elections to fight anti-defection laws.
But behind this round of political instability which saw the smaller parties play a crucial role was the Manohar Parrikar-led BJP, smarting under its inability to best the Congress in the June 2 elections.
Controversial politicians Atanasio 'Babush' Monserrate and Churchill Alemao – who have also switched sides in the past – were also seen to be keen to fight for a bigger say in politics here. Both had quit the Congress, in mistimed moves which personally fell them politically costly, just before the last elections.
Earlier this week, speculation reached Goan expat communities via cyberspace, and various permutations and combinations were discussed over who could assume power in a state which has come to accept the most bizarre alliances possible among antagonists.
Post-midnight's revolt on Wednesday-Thursday was the second this week.
Tuesday's attempted revolt too saw the closening of ranks of ex-BJP CM Manohar Parrikar with 'Babush' Monserrate, his bete noire who himself played a crucial role in toppling the Parrikar government in 2005.
Monserrate, a Congressman after ditching the BJP, was himself sharply targeted by the BJP – for alleged real estate-related manipulations – till he suddenly quit the Congress after his wife Jennifer was refused a ticket in the June 2007 elections.
Paradoxically, family members have come to play a domineering role here. Besides the Alemao brothers (one in the Save Goa Front and the other in the Congress), there's also the Madkaikar brothers (of the MGP), and the Pratapsing-Vishwajit Rane father-son duo, one in the Congress and the other an Independent.
Local cable TV news channel Goa 365 highlighted how politicians in the new alliance were cursing each other on tape till recently. BJP called Alemao's Save Goa Party the "Shave Goa Party", though it now sees a possible ally in him.
Both Parrikar and Monserrate are set to team up with Congress legislator Victoria "Mummy" Fernandes, who had been strongly critical of Monserrate's role and who fought the elections against his wife, citing her bravery in doing so.
Money-power is again riding on political ambitions here.
In a media statement, Congress legislator Agnelo Fernandes of the beach-village of Calangute later made a claim that he was offered Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) to switch sides.
In the South Goa headquarters capital of Margao, Save Goa Front leader Churchill Alemao, who has often played a disproportionately big role in Goan politics since his entry into the assembly in 1990, told journalists after the earlier Tuesday aborted political coup that it was "too early" to bring down the Digambar Kamat government.
Goa is no stranger to political instability, and has seen government toppled here since 1990, both due to overambitions among local politicians, and the behind-the-scenes roles played by the various big lobbies in this small state.
Since 1990, Goa had 13 politicians take oath as chief minister – apart from three stints of President's Rule – as compared to just three chief ministers between 1963 and 1990.
Party labels mean little here, with individual egos and communal or caste loyalties being more significant than ideology.