Ahead of next month’s Goa Assembly elections, the Congress, which was hit hardest by defection in the BJP-ruled state in the past five years, made its candidates swear before God that they would not change party if elected.
The Congress on Saturday took all its 34 candidates in a special bus to a temple, a church and a dargah in the state and administered them the ‘anti-defection’ oath. Since the last election, the Congress has seen most of its MLAs leave the party.
The oldest party, which emerged as the single largest party after the 2017 assembly elections winning 17 seats in the 40-member House, now has only two MLAs in the House. In 2019, ten Congress MLAs had joined the ruling BJP, which has a current strength of 27 in the assembly.
Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Girish Chodankar said, “The exercise of making candidates take oath before God was started to instil confidence in the minds of the people.” The candidates were taken to the Mahalaxmi temple in Panaji, a church in Bambolim and a dargah in Betim village near the capital city.
Senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, who is the party’s Goa election observer, accompanied the candidates to these religious places. But the Congress is not the first party in the state to undertake such an exercise.
On January 31 last year, the Goa Forward Party (GFP) took all three of its MLAs and office bearers to the Dev Bodheshwar temple in Mapusa and took a pledge from them that they would not support the BJP in the 2022 state elections.
The GFP extended its support to the Manohar Parrikar-led BJP government in 2017. The GFP legislators were made ministers at that time. However, after 10 Congress MLAs joined the BJP in 2019, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant dropped the GFP ministers from the cabinet, who took over the reins of the state after Parrikar’s death.
The Vijay Sardesai-led GFP faced a backlash for backing the BJP to form the government. However, despite taking oath at the Mapusa temple, Jayesh Salgaonkar, a GFP MLA, later shifted to the ruling BJP. He is currently the BJP candidate from Saligao Assembly Constituency.
Recently, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is also contesting the Goa Assembly elections, had announced that its candidates would have to sign a legal affidavit, which mentioned that if they are elected, they will be eligible for any other Will not leave the party to join.
An AAP leader had said the Arvind Kejriwal-led party decided to stop defection as it felt the coastal state was “notorious” for politicians switching to other parties.
According to a report by the Association of Democratic Reforms (ADR), 24 MLAs in Goa, which is 60 per cent of the total strength of the state assembly, have switched parties in the last five years. With these defections, Goa has set a unique record, which is “unique” in the history of Indian democracy, the organization said in its report.
“In the five-year term of the current Assembly (2017-2022), 24 MLAs have changed their parties, which is 60 per cent of the total strength of the House. This has never happened anywhere else in India. It is about voters. A clear reflection of complete disregard for the mandate. A rigid approach to ethics and discipline stemmed from uncontrolled greed in the worst-case scenario,” the report said. Goa goes to polls on February 14.
With the entry of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and AAP, the electoral battle in the state has become multi-cornered. So far, there has been an electoral alliance between the regional MGP and TMC, and the Congress and GFP. Shiv Sena and NCP are also contesting the elections together. In the 2017 elections, despite winning 17 seats, the Congress could not come to power as the BJP, which had secured 13 seats, formed an alliance with some independents and regional parties to form the government.
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