Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'BJP forms government in Goa' that was published in Newsband

BJP forms government in Goa

After the counting of votes at Goa on March 11, the issue of government-formation was taken to court. The Bharatiya Janata Party had 13 legislators in the 40-member Assembly. The single largest party, the Congress, was short of a majority too, winning 17 seats. But the support was guaranteed to the BJP by the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party, and with the Goa Forward Party and two independents also hitching their bandwagon to the BJP, the party had the upper hand.

The Governor should have invited the leader of the single largest party to try to form the government. The Supreme Court’s decision was to not stay Governor Mridula Sinha’s invitation to the BJP to form the government. With the BJP winning the vote of confidence in the Assembly, it returned to power. Senior BJP leader and Union Defence Minister, Manohar Parrikar, had to be roped in to take over as Chief Minister.

The BJP, after coming to power in 2012, had promised to take steps to eradicate corruption. Will they keep the promise this time?  

There is no logic in the argument that the Governor should have invited only the single largest party after the NCP, MGP & GFP along with two independents had clearly offered their support to BJP on the condition that Manohar Parrikar became the CM of the State, a condition that BJP accepted. On the other hand, there has been internal dissensions in the INC which resulted in one of its MLAs abstaining from voting altogether going against the whip.

The Governor has to be practical. There was no point in inviting the internally disoriented INC to form a government knowing fully well that it did not enjoy a simple majority. In any case, the INC could not even stake its claim because it could not agree on a CM. The Congress party was in deep slumber when developments in Goa took place and therefore lost the initiative in grabbing power. However, the utterances of Congress leaders like Rahul Gandhi, P Chidambaram and Digvijay Singh that the BJP "stole" power for money and muscle are out of deep disappointment, shock and frustration. Congress party has to come to terms, revitalize its cadres in Goa instead of blaming BJP or PM Modi.