LEGACY: The legacy of the late Manohar Parrikar has been destroyed by local BJP leaders. They not only denied Utpal Parrikar the party ticket for Panaji, but did not allow him to participate at his father’s death anniversary samadhi ceremony at the Miramar memorial

By Rajan Narayan

Contrary to Amit Shah’s claim, Pramod Sawant and Satish Dhond have destroyed Parrikar legacy. They have humiliated the late Manohar Parrikar’s son Utpal Parrikar. They have denied tickets to veteran BJP leaders like Laxmikant Parsekar and Siddesh Naik, son of Shripad Naik.

CONTRARY to the claim of the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, the present regime of Satish Dhond and Pramod Sawant is destroying Manohar Parrikar’s golden Goa dream. The control of the capital city Panaji is being handed over not to a highly qualified engineer from the United States but to an illiterate goon who has not even completed his SSC. But Utpal Parrikar is not the only victim of the Satish Dhond conspiracy to demolish Parrikar’s golden Goa dream. As in the case of Laxmikant Parsekar, who was denied the ticket for Mandrem, the son of Shripad Naik, Siddesh Naik, has also been denied a ticket for the Cumberjua seat. There are several other minority community BJP MLAs like Carlos Almeida who have been evicted from the BJP.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been converted into the Babush-Jennifer party. It is Babush Monserrate who has been hailed as a great social worker by the BJP, who has decided who will get tickets in Bardez. The close friend of Babush, Agnelo Sileveira, has been given the ticket for the St Andre constituency which was represented by Vishnu Wagh, who regrettably died after a fatal accident and after spending several months in a Mumbai hospital. The former Sarpanch of Taleigao has not been given tickets for Santa Cruz.
At the insistence of Babush the ticket has been retained by Tony Rodrigues, who has bought the Red Rosary School at Campal. The ticket for Cumberjua constituency was to go to Siddesh Naik at the special request of senior-most BJP member Shripad Naik. But this was overruled by Satish Dhond. On the insistence of Babush Monserrate the ticket was given to Jonita, the wife of Pandurang Madkaikar who is in very poor health after he allegedly consumed some drug and had to be hospitalized.
Pandurang Madkaikar’s main claim to fame is that he has built a huge palace just opposite the Bom Jesus Basilica in the Heritage Zone zone of Old Goa. Though under pressure from the Church the illegal bungalow built by Shaina Nana Chudasam (Shaina NC), senior BJP leader, has not been demolished yet. Despite orders from the Old Goa Panchayat. Pandurang Madkaikar’s palace which is three times the size of the Shaina NC bungalow cannot be touched as it enjoys the protection of Babush Monserrate.

TICKET ALLOCATION
SATISH Dhond has made it clear repeatedly that it is “win-ability” which has been the factor while allotting tickets to BJP candidates. Not whose son or daughter the candidate may be. Satish Dhond has also pointed out that it was the late Manohar Parrikar who invited Babush Monserrate to join the BJP and made him the Town & Country Planning minister.
It may be recalled that the Regional Plan 2011, which proposed handing over the whole of Goa to builders from Delhi and Mumbai, was scrapped after a long agitation by the Goa Bachao Abhiyan. Again it was Babush Monserrate who came to the rescue of the BJP when following the death of the Parrikar, Goa Forward and MGP withdrew support. It was Babush who engineered the defection of ten of the 15 Congress MLAs into the BJP. It was this that ensured the continuity of the BJP government under the chief ministership of Pramod Sawant.
It was the late Manohar Parrikar who realized that the BJP could not form the government in Goa on its own without the support of the minority community. When the BJP first formed the government in 2002 there were only two minority community MLAsl, namely Wilfred Mesquita from Vasco and Francis D’Souza from Mapusa. It was Manohar Parrikar who decided to experiment with offering BJP tickets to Catholic candidates who had been rejected by the Congress party. The experiment was a tremendous success with all the Catholic candidates given BJP tickets winning the elections. Even in 2017 of the 13 seats that the BJP secured, ten were because of the tickets given to members of the minority community.

RSS POLICY
PRAMOD Sawant was made the chief minister after the death of Manohar Parrikar because he was the only member of the RSS/ BJP cadres who was left. It has always been the policy of the RSS that only a member of the RSS could be made the chief minister or the prime minister of any BJP government. Narendra Modi himself spent almost 20 years as a pracharak of the RSS before he was inducted into the BJP and became the chief minister of Gujarat.
If the BJP wins the Valentine’s Day February 14 election, it will be primarily due to the Babush-Jennifer party. The only taluka in which Satish Dhond is confidant that the BJP will win all five seats is Tiswadi. The Bardez taluka has been virtually taken over by former BJP Calangute Waste Management Minister Michael Lobo. Who has collected all the waste in Bardez and given them tickets to contest the elections.
The Congess is so confidant of Michael Lobo’s skill in bribing and bullying the voters in Bardez, that as an exception even his wife Delilah has been given a ticket to contest from the Siolim constituency. The third jodi of course in the BJP is that of Health Minister Vishwajit Rane and his wife Dr Divya Rane who has snatched her father-in-law’s Poriem seat. It is clear from the allotment of tickets that the BJP does not have enough winnable candidates to retain control over a government in 2022 elections.
Over 25% of the candidates who have been given tickets to contest the elections on a BJP tickets are from the minority community. This includes old loyalists like Nilesh Cabral, who is reportedly very close to Nitin Ghadkari, the agent of Gautam Adani. So much so the BJP is no longer a Hindutva party at least in Goa. This is not because the BJP does not want to convert Goa into a Hindutva state.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant even went to the extent of announcing that Hindu temples would be built where they were once demolished by the Portuguese. In the wake of widespread protests from the minority community on whom the BJP is dependent, Pramod Sawant withdrew the demand.
The backbone of the BJP in the Valentine’s Day election is the Babush Jennifer party. Historically, the Ponda taluka used to be the stronghold of the BJP-MGP alliance. But this time Sudhin Dhavalikar has entered into an alliance with the Goa Trinamool Congress. This reduces the chances of the BJP getting any seats in the Ponda taluka.

NINE MINING SEATS
THE BJP is unlikely to get any tickets in the mining belt of Quepem-Curchorem. There are as many as nine seats in the mining belt. The voters in the mining belt are very angry with BJP over the suspension of mining. The BJP has not been able to revive mining of iron ore on which three lakh families are dependent even now.
The Congress- Goa Forward alliance seems to have consolidated its hold over Salcette. This is dramatized by the fact that Luizinho Faleiro threatened to leave the TMC if he was forced to contest from Fatorda against Vijai Sardesai and Damu Naik. Luizinho’s old constituency Navelim faces a challenge from Valanka Alemao. Filipe Neri, who used to be the BJP MLA from Velim, has quit the BJP and is contesting as an Independent.
Clafasio Dias is the only MLA who has retained his BJP ticket but will face a stiff challenge. In any case, Salcette has always been under the control of the Congress. The minority community dominated taluka is unlikely to give BJP a single ticket. after all the threats being aired about genocide, a ban on beef, vandalization of churches and claims of conversions in Karnataka and elsewhere in the country.
The taluka that remains are Sattari and Mormugoa. In the Sattari taluka the Ranes have already captured two seats. Vishwajit, who resigned from the Congress and joined the BJP way back in 2017, has got his wife Divya the ticket for Poriem. Even Chief Minister Pramod Sawant is not confidant of winning the Sanquelim seat which he is contesting again.

CONGRESS MANIFESTO
SIGNFICANTLY, Rahul Gandhi is releasing the Congress manifesto from Sanquelim on February 2, 2022. In the Mormugoa taluka Carlos Almeida, former BJP MLA who won three times in succession, has quit and is contesting as an Independent. In the Dabolim seat the best hope of the BJP is Mauvin Gudinho who controls his slums vote bank. It is doubtful however if the BJP will get the Cortalim seat where Olencio Simoes, the leader of the fisher folk, is contesting on the Congress ticket.
It is not just the minority community which is disillusioned with the BJP. There are large sections of the majority Hindu community who are also agitated over the new politics of the BJP. Goa has never accepted the BJP version of Hinduism. Goa has never accepted Hindutva which is the primary electoral plank of the BJP. Goa has always been a state which has been committed to communal harmony. It is only state in the country which is never witnessed a communal riot excepting a minor incident in Curchorem.
As we are so fond of quoting the first prime minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, “Goa ke log ajeeb hai.” They rejected the Congress party which had claimed to have liberated Goa. The people of Goa are not going to vote for the BJP which is trying to destroy Manohar Parrikar’s golden Goa.