With only two months left for the Goa Assembly elections, it is a season for leaders to change political affiliations, with nearly a fifth of the 40-member Goa Assembly switching loyalties in less than three months. In the Musical Chair of Goa, at least six MLAs have resigned and joined other parties and two have promised to support the parties without resigning as MLAs.
Of these eight MLAs, three have joined the BJP, two have joined the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, one has joined the Aam Aadmi Party, and an independent MLA has extended support to the Congress, the latest It is Alekso Reginaldo Lourenco who has given his support. Resigned from the Speaker’s office on Monday, but was yet to formally join any other party, though there is talk of him joining the TMC.
As ThePrint reports, though defections before elections are not new, there is a peculiar phenomenon in Goa where assembly constituencies are small and due to individual followers, leaders are confident that they will vote for whichever party they contest. will be re-elected.
If the figures are to be analysed, the ruling BJP is likely to be the biggest beneficiary of the defection, as the three who have joined the BJP – Rohan Khunte, Ravi Naik and Jayesh Salgaonkar – the first two won a series of victories in their constituencies. Has attained.
Khunte, who was a minister in the BJP-led government until the death of former chief minister Manohar Parrikar, won the Porvorim constituency in 2012 and 2017 as an independent candidate over the BJP. I have had a long journey of almost five decades. Naik was initially with the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) until 1991, and later joined the Congress. In 2001, he split in the Congress Legislature Party and supported Parrikar to form a BJP government, with Naik as the deputy CM. He left the BJP before the 2002 assembly elections and returned to the Congress.
Salgaonkar, the third legislator to join the BJP, was the MLA from Saligao of the Vijay Sardesai-led Goa Forward Party (GFP).
Another aspect of the upcoming elections has been the growing popularity of the Trinamool Congress, which is looking to expand its footprint outside Bengal and often talks of national ambitions.
The first legislator to resign and defect was former Congress CM Luizinho Faleiro, who moved to the TMC in September and was given a Rajya Sabha seat by the party in November. Faleiro is a seven-time legislator from Navelim and his joining the TMC, along with Churchill Alemao, will create a strong foundation for the Banerjee-led party to make inroads into the Catholic-majority Salsette sub-district.
Political experts believe that the entry of Mamata Banerjee’s party may help the BJP as it will cut the vote share of the Congress. Meanwhile, AAP is on a boom in the state and the ruling party may benefit from a fractured opposition.
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